O Ma God Senor

The Spanish language and I don’t mix. Seriously, my Spanish is really bad. No let me restate that, IT’S TERRIBLE!

I read somewhere the more you expose a young brain to new ideas, thoughts and skills, the more flexible it is to adapt in the future. Really smart people say that our brains, prior to 10 years of age, is continuously “mapping” to new things and ideas. It's called Mind Mapping. The idea here is to expose young kids to as many diverse things as possible, to include foreign languages, so that their brain can "map it" and have the capacity to learn these things in the future. Okay, maybe you are thinking I should watch just a bit more TV and put down the books!

Actually I find this whole mind mapping thing pretty interesting. I think it is the reason we try to protect, or over protect in some cases, our kids when they are young. I also think it is why we really need to expose our kids to a lot more things in their early years (to include foreign languages), even if we don’t think they understand what we are showing them. If the theory holds true, they will be mind mapping like crazy!

Now back to my Spanish. I am convinced at this point that my brain NEVER mapped foreign languages when I was young. At this point I am sure my wife is saying that I must have been exposed to a lot of things that are GEEKY and NERDY! I bring ALL of this up to try and explain why it is that Martita is learning more English then I am Spanish! Seriously, as my Spanish vocabulary has increased maybe by 10 words this week, Martita’s English vocabulary has increased by at least 30! And the Rock Star (Lucie) you might ask? She’s leaving me in the dust putting entire sentences together in Spanish. Now granted Lucie’s sentences are things like “Martita, don’t touch my stuff”, or “Martita come here”, or” Martita you need to go to bed” (She tries to be the parent…maybe she thinks I should do a better job?) but she is really accelerating. The other day, as we were leaving the Volcano we were headed down the road pretty fast. The taxi was rattling, the brakes squealing, smoking and smelling. Lucie says “Uh Norman? (our taxi driver that day). No mas rapido por favor (don’t go fast or please slow down!)…comprendo”? I guess her survival mechanism really kicked her mind map into gear!

To give you a feel for Martita’s English…she has learned “You are crazy”, “I’m hungry” (okay that phrase may, once again, be a reflection on my parenting!), and “What the heck”? YES, she said Heck…THAT is MY parenting. If it were Lesa’s the word Heck would have been...well you know where I am going with this one!

She also says with a Ricky Ricardo accent “O ma God”! Okay let me explain this one. Our regular taxi driver, Herman, says “O ma God” ALL OF THE TIME! For example, he will say in broken English to me “Jo wyfe Lezza, she no come back por uno week? O ma God senor”!!! Or “Dat Luucie…che is clazy…ha ha ha…O ma God” ! Note to self…don’t allow your child to interface with Nicaraguan taxi drivers!

All of this said, there is one Spanish word I learned this week that will stick with me as my “special” Spanish word. We all know that Mother’s are special people. When it comes to Lesa and Martita or for that matter Lesa and our other girls, SHE is their support structure, their security blanket, their comfort. It has been very difficult for me to get close to Martita given Lesa’s “Mom skills” and Martita’s background. She wanted and needed a Momma. For almost 3 years, I have lived at arm’s length from Martita. This didn’t discourage me but it did get me down more than most people even know. This week Martita has obviously gotten a little closer to her Papa (okay maybe she had no choice!). She actually really only started calling me Papa in the last year. At the pool the other day she started calling me Pa Pea (phonetically). Confused, I asked one of the folks at the pool about this change. I was told this is a very, very good thing. It means she went from calling you Dad…to DADDY! If that is the ONLY Spanish word I learn this week, or for that matter the rest of my life…I am good with it!

Thanks for "hangin" with me this week. Love you guys!