My Clever Little Chicken

Sarah's vocabulary leaves lots to be desired...or so we thought. Dan and I could pick out two words that she would say: "Mama" and "oui". That was it. The strange thing is that Sarah does "talk" to us. She looks at us in the eye and proceeds to spout jibberish. However, she does have the flow of the English language, just not the language itself.

Yesterday, Emilie and Sam came over after daycare. Emilie and I were chatting on the deck. I was having some Crystal Light. Sarah gestured frantically that she would like some of my drink. I said "Do you want some juice?". She babbled something to me. Emilie said "Jus ca" (I cannot make the proper "c" as I don't have a French keyboard). That was what Sarah had "babbled" to me when asking for my drink! It was then that I had realised that Sarah had indeed asked for what she wanted. However, she asked me in French!

Speaking French will definately help Sarah in the "real" world. However, it doesn't do her much good in our house as neither Dan nor I speak French. Katie says "oui" instead of "yes", and Bethie says "pas" meaning "not" ("pas chicken for dinner", "pas bath"). Other than that, we've got nothing.

This is how I see it: although Sarah understands both English and French, she only speaks French. Sigh. Who would have thought that Dan and I would be raising a francophone?