Barbara’s Story 1

(a Polish-speaking mother and a Portuguese-speaking father)

Paulina – Mom: So Lucas (Dad) was showing the latest viral video to Barbara (2,5 years old). He was telling her about the Raposa (Fox) song. Asked her if she wanted to see it and she said yes (all in Portuguese). I asked him in English:
– What is Raposa, Lucas?”
Before he could even think about answering, Barbara turned her head to me and said:
– “Lis, Mama!!”. (Lis = Fox in Polish).
We are bringing up a walking dictionary.

Barbara’s Story 2

Paulina – Mom: We went to school to meet Santa. Basia (3 months shorter of 3 years) saw him and said:

(in Polish) – Mama, Mikolaj ma czapke i brode [Mommy, look! Santa has a hat and a beard!],  (in English) a coat, (in Portuguese) Calca [trousers], (in Polish) i buty [and shoes!

– All in one sentence.

Mark’s story

(a Russian-speaking mother and a Swedish-speaking father; Mark is a twin, he has a twin-sister)

SvetlanaMom: The first time Mark told us a real story. Kids were about 22 months old and at that time had a few words in their vocabulary mostly from Russian and Swedish. But they seldom spoke in sentences and we never heard them tell us “a real coherent story.” Until one day, when we went for a bike ride in our neighborhood in Charleston, SC. I had Alina (twin-sister) in her baby seat on my bike and we went ahead, while the boys stayed behind because Mark’s helmet kept falling on his eyes and Jorgen (Dad) had to stop a few times to fix it. When they finally caught up with us, Mark was all excited and told us the following story: “Pappa nil (“уронил”, dropped in Russian) cykel (Swedish for “bike”). Maki (Mark) pal (“упал”, fell in Rus), cykel pal. Maki pakal (“плакал”, cried in Rus). Maki ni vava (Mark “didn’t get hurt”, all Russian “baby” language).” Jorgen said he almost dropped the bike with Mark in his baby seat when he was fixing Mark’s helmet, but he caught the bike so it never actually touched the ground and Mark did not get hurt. Jorgen was still happy that I did not see that but Mark sold him out the minute they caught up with us.