Bilingual Baby

Abuelita Marisol and Tia Yazmin with Felix and me.

Before my niece was born, I made her a onesie that said “Bilingual baby: I cry in English and Spanish.” It seemed like a joke at the time, but I’ve since learned that babies’ earliest sounds really do mimic what they hear from us. Lately I’ve noticed that Felix’s coos and cries often match my tone of voice. If he’s upset and I coo back at him, he’ll match my pitch.

It’s pretty cute and funny, but it also reminded me that we need to get on this Spanish stuff right away since he’ll be 3 months old next week (but not old enough for the bilingual immersion daycare till next winter.) It turns out our brains can completely lose the ability to make certain sounds if we’re not exposed to them before 6 months of age…perhaps why Americans have such a hard time sounding fluent in other languages, no matter how hard they study. And maybe why Spanish speakers have a hard time with all our vowel sounds. Some of my Mexican friends had the hardest time with certain words all coming out the same: bird, bear and beer all sounded like beer. Her, hair and here all sounded like here. (Spanish, as you may know, has just one sound per vowel.)

So in addition to ordering a set of 14 kids’ Spanish books for Felix, I ordered 3 DVDs from Amazon today. Two are Plaza Sesamo, aka Sesame Street, and the other goes over 60 words and phrases related to manners, greetings and everyday objects. Now before anyone gets all worked up about me putting Felix in front of the TV, I’m only going to play them as background noise to start. It’ll expose him to the sounds and prompt me to speak more Spanish around the house, since I often switch to it when I hear it.

This weekend, my sister-in-law’s mother visited from Utah. Her first language is Spanish and it was really cute watching Felix study her as she spoke to him. I don’t know if Felix’s birth mom or half-siblings speak Spanish, but if they ever meet one day (and I’m sort of assuming they will), I sure don’t want him to feel left out of an entire culture because of a language barrier.

Something else to remember: bilingual babies often speak a little later than their peers, but they have better comprehension overall. So there’s no need to fear they’re getting confused or overwhelmed with all the info. Their little brains are just amazing.

Almost 11 Weeks

Baby long legs, 10 weeks 6 days.

Hopefully I'll say this every month, but I'm really enjoying this stage. Felix is chubby and happy and wakes up when he's done sleeping - not just because he's hungry - so our mornings are pretty peaceful. I don't have to scramble to make a bottle first thing. He hangs out in his Rock N Play sleeper or monkey chair while I take my time washing bottles, making coffee, packing our bags and even showering. It really sets a nice tone for the day.

Felix has also expanded his entertainment options. He notices the musical toys on his chairs and loves "swimming" in the kiddie pool at grandma and grandpa's house. He still likes a change of scenery every hour or so, but that's to be expected.

We had his 2-month appointment this week, and aside from a thrush diagnosis, everything is good. (Thrush is a common and minor yeast infection of the mouth, cured with liquid diflucan for 14 days.) He's just above average for head size and weight, but despite all the comments on how long his legs are, came in at just the 8th percentile for length! The doctor said it doesn't mean he won't catch up, but she's not predicting a lot of height for him.

We also had our first embRACE Idaho meet up this week. It's a local group for parents who have adopted children of different races. The event was an ice cream social in the park and lots of fun. I look forward to getting to know the parents better so I can go to them for help handling difficult questions later.

Before I sign off, I want to give another huge "thanks" to everyone who has been so generous with us. Whenever I need something, I just go to his room and there it is - books, toys, blankets, wipes, adorable outfits, binkies, you name it. It's really a daily reminder of just how much we are loved.

Plenty of Good News

My handsome little man at the Blues Picnic.

Things have really been falling into place for Felix and me. He transitioned to our new work/daycare routine without any issues, and his sleep stretches are getting a bit longer. I also switched him to a low-lactose formula for night feedings, which has appeared to solve the problem of his grunting every morning starting at about 4 am. I can see the light at the end of the sleep deprivation tunnel! Our days and nights have been full of activities including the Boise Blues Picnic, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, walks along the greenbelt, softball practice and camping. Next week is our first ice cream social with a local adoption group, and I look forward to chatting with other adoptive parents.

Little by little I’m learning what an easy baby Felix is, relatively speaking. I’m part of a May 2012 Birth Club online, and the group is full of moms with concerns like projectile vomiting, rashes, screaming instead of sleeping, not smiling, protein allergies and undiagnosed conditions. Plenty of moms can’t run errands with their babies because they wail the whole time. (Off topic, there are also about two dozen women complaining about their video game-addict husbands who spend every free second playing online war games, often in the same bedroom where mom and baby are trying to sleep. And another dozen complaining about cheating husbands.)

Switching gears: Last fall I looked into refinancing my mortgage, but new mortgage insurance rates made it a bad idea. Apparently someone realized that was causing problems for responsible home owners like me, so they made some changes in June, and this week I was able to refinance and save a huge chunk of change each month. How huge? The difference will cover almost half of my daycare expenses each month. It couldn’t have come at a better time.

And the icing on the cake was a phone call last week from Affording Adoption, letting me know Felix and I have been selected to receive a $750 grant to cover our post-placement visits. Sweet!

Post-Placement Visit #1

Today we had our first post-placement visit with our case worker Liz. In other words, we're one step closer to being official! I learned at my home study visit that they don't care how my closets looked, so I was more relaxed this time. And by relaxed, I mean I didn't scrub the place top-to-bottom.

I basically told Felix's birth story, shared our experiences in Oregon and answered a bunch of questions about how much he eats, his health, our bonding so far, and how I would describe him. (The first word that came to mind was "noisy", which got a laugh out of the case worker.)

Jayda once again curled up next to Liz and rested her chin on her laptop keyboard. Not to be outdone, the cats purred and rubbed against her feet and laptop edges, then got on the chair behind me and nuzzled the back of my head.

The report from this visit will be compiled with reports from future visits in August and October, hopefully finalizing the whole thing with a November court date. Woo hoo!

First Camping Trip, Returning to Work

This weekend I took Felix on his first camping trip. I think I was 3 weeks old on my first trip, so I was a real slacker waiting till he was almost 7 weeks for his first outing. We'd only been there a few hours when I noticed he had dirt under his fingernails and soot on his nose...not sure how that happened so fast!

He slept his usual schedule of two hours at a time, and was usually content staring at the trees, riding in the Bjorn or cuddling with one of us around the fire. Saturday afternoon was pretty hot, so I stripped him down to keep him happy.

I'm headed back to work on Thursday this week, and I have mixed feelings about it. I'm going to work two half-days before going back full time Monday morning. Last night I started us on our new 9pm bedtime schedule (ugh) and forced myself to get up much earlier than needed. Luckily I like my job, so I'm not dreading going back like some new moms might. It will definitely be a transition though.

Auntie Jill couldn't get enough of his
cuddly diaper butt. (Felix staring at trees.)

Like anyone who works, I think it's important to fill off-hours with fun stuff. This week we're going to be in a 4th of July parade, have a bbq and watch the big show in the park, and we have tickets to the Shakespeare Festival (family show). I've also been checking out swimming lessons for this fall and trying to plan other things to look forward to.

Of course that's all later. Today calls for laundry, dishes, bottle washing and grocery shopping. What's new?