Who's teaching Whom?

This whole language thing learning process is a mysterious and complicated thing. In fact, it raises a number of questions. Here are two I've been thinking about lately:

1. Who are the teachers, who are the learners?
Often it seems to me Jess and Eves think they are teaching us their language rather than the other way around. Let me give you an example:

I say, holding up a shoe and enunciating very carefully: "Sssshhhhooooeeee, this is a shoe." Evie watching me carefully, points at the shoe and says "Ga-ga". I say, "no, it's a sssshhhhh-ooooo! Can you say 'shoe'?" She says: "Ga-ga". I turn to Jess. "Jess, can you say 'shoe'?" He says, "ga-ga". And this isn't an isolated incident. Indeed it occurs daily--whenever we're on the topic of shoes (which we frequently are since we are constantly putting back the shoes they are constantly removing). Always it's the same. We point to the shoes, ask "what is this" and always we are instructed "ga-ga". When will we learn?

We're discovering that, with twins, language learning is a bit more complicated. They come to agreed upon meanings amongst themselves and the natives want to stick to their own language. "Ga-ga" for shoe is just one example. Here are some others:

• "baba?" while holding out an object means "do you want this?" or "baba!" again, while holding out an object means "take this!" or "baba" said while grabbing and object means "I'm taking this" (It's a general giving and receiving word.)
  

• "gub-gub" this is the word for these little notches on the side of their booster seats.

Here's a little sample of everyday experiences in communication with the little people:

2. What counts as saying a word?
If I count all the sounds they make that we can recognize as words, then I'd say they've each got between 15 and 20 words. But I must confess many of them are variations on 4 consonant sounds repeated:

• "ba-ba" (prounced with slight variation, emphasis or speed can mean either "ball", "book", "bottle", "bye-bye", "baby", or even "bear", "bubbles", "bounce" and, as mentioned previously, "want this?" or "I'm taking this".)

• "muh-muh" (depending on slight variations that only a discerning and loving parent can hear can mean: "mama", "memaw", "elmo", "more", "milk", or, if there's only one "muh", then it means "muffin")

• "ga-ga" (="go" or "shoe")

• "da-da" (="dad", "duck", or "downstairs")
  

Only clear words so far:

• "up" (but "up" means "out", "in", "on", "down"--basically its a generic preposition word) --so do I get to count it just once or do I count if for every preposition for which it is employed?
  
• 'O" (for Cheerios),
  
• "na-na-na-na" (banana)

Wonder Twin Powers

ACTIVATE!

(Oh, and in case you're wondering about the monkey backpacks: we bought these little backpacks last weekend--the monkey's tail doubles as a "leash." At this point, survival dictates that we resort to devices such as these. Anyhow, they don't seem to mind walking around with monkeys on their backs. In fact, they wanted to wear them at all times for the first few days after we bought them. Stay tuned for updates about how "walking" the twins works out for us...)


Moving on to another room...

Easter (our first together)

It was a lovely Easter...

This was unexpected since we were both feeling pretty low and, so, also pretty unmotivated to do much for Easter (still on the rebound from Evie's hospitalization). Fortunately, some good friends from church --the Dandos--had a festive weekend planned and included us. We dyed eggs with them (OK, *I* dyed eggs while Brent took the twins on a walk around the neighborhood) on Saturday morning and enjoyed a lovely brunch. I joined them for Easter vigil on Saturday evening. On Sunday, after the church service, there was an Easter egg hunt and a potluck brunch. Later that evening we went back to the Dandos' place for an amazing Easter dinner. It turned out to be a really nice weekend--a time for some much needed quiet and cheer.

You know, it was just about this time last year that we got a phone call letting us know that we had a referral for twins (!). Amazing what can happen in a year! We have been blessed.

Thanks be to God.

Hospital Ordeal

The back-story for this is too long to describe, and most of you know it anyhow.

The short story is that with very little notice, we discovered that we had to admit Evelyn to the hospital for what we initially were told would be a 2 day stay which turned, suddenly, into a 10 day stay. Evelyn had to recieve a 10 day course of Penicillin--administered intravenously every 6 hours.

She wasn't sick when she went in, but she was both sick and traumatized when she came out. (Much the same is true of Jess, who didn't understand and grieved her absence.) Evelyn's ordeal involved, sedation, a spinal tap, multiple IVs (at times two at once--one in each arm) and constant--for her also very stressful--poking and prodding from doctors and nurses. To top it all off, both Evie and Jesse (and me) picked up a flu virus that was going round the floor. So we had fevers running in the 103's both at home and at the hospital. The worst part of the flu, however, wasn't the sickness; it also resulted in Evelyn being put "on isolation". For the last 4 days of her stay, she wasn't permitted leave her little hospital room (802 East)--not once.

Above: The 8th floor where we stayed.

I don't think I could begin to describe how horrible this experience was.

Thankfully, we had help from friends with cooking and childcare until reinforcements--a.k.a. "mom"--arrived on the 4th day of Evie's hospital stay. Frankly, I don't know what we'd have done without her. Even with her help, I feel like we barely survived. There was no choice but for me to take the full 10 days off work; Brent took a number of days off too and worked only 3/4-1/2 time other days. The average day consisted in my staying with Evelyn at the hospital from morning till about 4 or so in the afternoon. When Brent got off work, he'd take a shift at the hospital while I went home to spend time with Jess, who was himself shaken by Evelyn's absence and Brent's and my long hours away. Usually, I brought Jess back to the hospital so he could spend time with Evie. After an hour or so, I'd go back home with Jess to give him dinner, bath, and put him to bed. Then I'd return to the hospital to bring dinner (which mom made) to Brent. Usually, I'd eat dinner with him and spend a few more hours. We took turns staying the night with Evelyn so, depending on whose night it was, I'd either come home at about 10-11pm or stay for the night. Mom worked her tail off: she took care of Jess during the hours our nanny wasn't on the clock, then she joined us at the hospital helping to pass the hours. She also cooked, cleaned, and gave much needed moral support.

The hours at the hospital were alternately long and stressful--because Evelyn was in pain, sick, and/or scared--or long and mind-numbingly dull--because she was feeling OK but was utterly bored, restless, and frustrated (especially during the days of being on isolation) . All and all, however, Evelyn was amazing. She fought like crazy against all that was painful and scary (and she found scary even the things that were not painful). Not once did she relent or surrender to something she didn't like--indeed, she surprised many a doctor and many a nurse with her strength (both physical and vocal). Needless to say, it was heartbreaking as parents to be in the position of trying to explain to her that these things had to be permitted. There were days when she was withdrawn and lethargic and sick (due to stress and pain). Those were dark days. But she hung in there, she came through, and more often than not, she managed to be her sweet, happy, goofy little self.

In sum: it was grueling--exhausting mentally, emotionally, and physically. Even so, Evelyn and Jess are back to life as usual. Brent and I are still recovering.

In the midst of it all we did manage a few pictures: