People kept saying, "just wait... Bea's language is going to explode one day." Yeah yeah yeah, blah blah blah, I just want to understand her NOW.
Well, it's NOW.
Within just the last week, the kid has started stringing together sentences of three, four, and five words. She repeats everything you say to her. (Note to self: do not make the same "dammit" mistake you made with Olivia.) She "reads" books to herself, copying the intonation and key words she remembers from each page. The Eric Carle books, in particular, are big favorites. "Braaaahn bear, braaaaaahn bear, what see? RED BUUUHHHD [bird]!"
What shocked me even more? She knows all of her letters and can count to ten. Well, unless you expect to hear seven, in which case you're SOL because she refuses to acknolwedge its existence.
One week ago, the kid couldn't (or wouldn't?) count past two, and even then she only counted when she wanted me to stop doing something. Hrm, where did she learn THAT? She also knew the letters A, B, and O.
On Monday she spontaneously counted to five, then yesterday to ten. She recognizes all of the letters by sight, as I discovered while we were in the longest grocery line EVER last night. I was trying to keep her from leveling destruction on the impulse purchase area of the checkout -- I handed her one of our Whole Foods bags and asked to her find an A. Instead, she pointed at the slogan and recited "O - R - G- A - N - I - C -T - O - O - U - R - R - O - O - T - S without missing a single one.
Go, Bea!
An interesting aside: Some of her Mandarin has re-emerged. We hear the phrase she uses for "there is" (phonetically, it sounds like JayLUH, but I have no idea how to spell it in pinyan) all the time now, after not hearing it for months. Same for the words she's using for "come here" and "enough/bless you" whenever John sneezes. And, thank you is still xie xie. The child, she is an enigma. An awfully cute one, but an enigma nonetheless.
Once again, I am walking the same path you are. This same thing is happening with Jamie, too. We're suddenly finding out he knows how to count and he's repeating everything we say and he's making sentences. This morning he dropped a toy and said "dumptruck fall!"
He never shuts up now. Never. Unless he's asleep.
The sweetest part is hearing him say "love you!"
Posted by: Cari | October 12, 2011 at 09:21 AM
Both my kids are learning Mandarin so I am hearing xie xie too.
Am I ever going to meet your kids?????
Posted by: ClumberKim | October 12, 2011 at 06:55 PM
That's great! I love the language explosions! Aside from watching Flora learn to read, it's my favorite part of childhood development.
Posted by: red pen mama | October 14, 2011 at 10:22 AM
This is exciting news Jen. Please make more videos so I can hear Miss B, including ones with Miss O if she agrees to be on camera. :)
Posted by: Susan | October 25, 2011 at 12:27 PM