Now it's at three

Now at the age of 17 months, there is ample evidence that there are three codes in place, all in the same brain. There was one good example of two codes just this morning. The point of this blog is to write about language, not other developments, but let's just say that Vera had a big accomplishment for the first time this morning. When her dad woke up, I whispered to her, "Tell Pappa about your potty." Vera looked up at him, a look of pride on her face, and said, "Pottan!" I was surprised that she knew how to translate so easily, and so instantly.

Last weekend, V's Finnish grandmother was visiting. V's "mummu," as she calls her, has always been worried that V wouldn't be a proper little Finnish girl who speaks proper Finnish. Last week's visit, I would say, quelled at least some of her fears. V chattered nonstop to Mummu in Finnish, talking about everything from her leipä 'bread' to potta 'potty.'

One of V's favorite things to do right now is to hand things back and forth, so that you have to say "Thank you!" then give whatever it is back to her, so she can say "Thank you!" and so on. I watched as V did this in three languages one morning last weekend. First she was doing this with me as I fed her breakfast: "Thank you!" Then came her pappa, and she handed him something and encouraged him to say, "Tack tack!" Then came her mummu, and immediately she switched to "Mummu, kiitos!" It seems quite clear that she divides her languages according to the interlocutor. I'm not sure at this point that she has a default language. I am tempted to say it would be English, but I have no way of knowing, of course, how she communicates when she is around other people (I'd love to be a fly on the wall!)

A few days ago, I am pretty sure we had what counts as our first kind of recap conversation of our day. I was putting her to bed, and she showed me her night-night bear and said, "Bear, water, uh-oh. No no no." At first I thought she was asking for a drink of water, but she corrected me. "Bear, uh-oh." I soon realized that she was reminding me of something that happened on our way back home from her babysitter. We were walking through a big mud puddle, and V chose that exact moment to drop her bear down onto the ground. I made a big show of telling her, "No no! Now your bear is all dirty! Look at that, you got your bear all wet and dirty. Now we have to go home and wash it." Obviously, this all made some impression on her -- surprise, surprise. When V brought this up later, at her bedtime, I went along with her, saying, "Yes, you dropped your bear. It got all dirty in the water. We had to wash it." You should have seen the delight on her face when I understood and responded to what she was trying to communicate! She was so excited. I can understand the thrill she must feel as she recognizes that she is able to relate to others through language.