Manos

We hired a Colombian nanny (Elba) in the hopes that our children would be able to learn Spanish organically, in the same way that they learned/are learning English.  She speaks to Evie exclusively in Spanish and works on Spanish words and phrases with Henry.  She's been less successful with HT because he thinks she's messing with him when she tells him what things are called in Spanish.  For example, she'll point at an airplane and say, "avion," and he'll say, "no, Ms. Elba, dat an aiw-pwane."  Anyway, yesterday, she told me that GK (who is now 7 months old) understands 'mano.'  I thought she was crazy but this morning when I was changing her diaper, I said it to her a few times.  Each time I did, she gave me her hand.  I'm not entirely convinced it wasn't because I was reaching toward her, that maybe she's reacting to my reaching rather than the word, but it was pretty cool to see.  And it made me think that maybe our plan is working!  I don't expect them to come away from the experience fluent in Spanish or anything, but even just the exposure at this age has to help with their mental flexibility, I would think.  Or at least hope.  Henry told me yesterday that the Spanish word for 'apple' is 'azana.'  I thought that was pretty good for a 2.5 year old.  Manzana is a big, hard word.  Though, he's been saying 'excavator' pretty well for the past week or so, so maybe I shouldn't be so impressed.

Evie - 7 months