The Pale Water

Or, the pail of water, as you may call it some day soon:-) Yes, we went up to Blektjern again today, at least the third time in this, my third week at home with you. Your aunt and uncle are visiting from New York but they stayed in Oslo last night so you and I took the walk alone today.

We had the pond all to ourselves, and hence, the mallards were back (they weren't there on Sunday because there were too many people). You marveled at the way they waddled, quacked, chased each other and flew overhead, circling around and around us and leaving feather-light wingbeats in our ears. You also said hello to a pair of finches (I think), one yellow and one red.

The hiking association has just put out some new canoes by the water's edge so we went up to the cabin to see where the paddles were stored. There we discovered a meadow of beautiful wildflowers - wild mustard, long pink flowers, plumes of white and the most delicate little pansies - farther along in bloom than any others because of their secret spot in the sun. I tried to take a pretty picture of you sitting in the wild mustard, but as usual, your singular focus was on the ground and your mouth was full of dirt and pebbles as I was shooting! What better way to experience nature than first-hand, or in this case first-tooth! Emerson and Tennyson would be proud.

Your emerging bilingualism

You are asleep in your stroller next to me as I look out at a placid but colder Blektjern today. Hard to believe I hopped in just two days ago, but that's the power  of sunshine. What a strong name you have, Sunniva!

And as for naming things, your abilities are really starting to take off. You understand much more than you can vocalize, which is natural, and I am thrilled to see that you respond as well to  English as to Norwegian, which has been at least 80 if not 90% of the language you have heard in your first year of life.

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Well, you woke up after that paragraph and it's now almost a week later. You've turned one and your linguistic explosion is such that if I don't document your words now you'll have too many for me to remember!

You showed understanding of Norwegian first, already at 6-7 months when mommy would say 'lys' and 'kykeliki' and you would look to the light and the chicken hanging from our ceiling. She continued to teach you in this excellent and methodical way until you could recognize both of us in photographs as well as other objects around the house, raise your arms to 'hvor stor er Sunniva?' clap your hands or wave at 'klappe' and 'vinke.'

When I saw how quickly you picked these words up I realized I had to start speaking a lot more English to you, and with a bit more pedagogy behind my words (C'mon, Teacherman!). Happily, you seem to have inherited your parents' fondness and facility for language, and you caught right up after a few weeks of intensive EFL! Most amazing is to watch how you parrot us more and more, repeating just about everything we say and even picking up on words you know in sentences that aren't addressed to you. 

As of now, your Norwegian words are:
'mamma'
'pappa'
'den' - den
'bam' - bamse, vann
'jajajaja' - you sing along with 'trollemor' and say 'ja'
'nei'
'puh' pære, pupp
'bæs' - bæsj
'muh' - mer eller mat
'baby'
'datt' - from lille petter edderkopp
'hatt' - from lille petter edderkopp

'Broom' - (car sound)

'Nam' - yummy

'Bo' - bok

'Ja'

Har prøvd: kykiliki

And your English words are:
'mamma, pappa' (not quite mommy and daddy yet)
'bam' - bunny
'yes'
'no' (nono)
'up' 
'oww' - owl (you love watching Twinkle Twinkle Little Star w owl on iPad b4 bed)
'ayyy' (when I point to my eye; not sure if you understand the perpendicular pronoun yet)
'ot' - hot
'mow' - mouth
'muh' - more
'baby'
'hat'