Hey, thanks, K. It's great to read about your experiences with bilingualism. S. speaks some French, so it won't be a problem (i.e., I won't be having to translate, at least at first). The experts say that even if the child speaks to the L2 parent in the L1, if the L2 parent consistently responds in the L2, then the L2 will be reinforced. They also say that when exposed in infancy to the sounds of a language, they retain the ability to distinguish those sounds throughout their lives, making it easier for them to "relearn" the language at an older age. Your kids will be able to speak Gaelic at some point if they want to, apparently with little or no accent. Were you brought up speaking it from birth?
I'm up late because I can't sleep - S. came home late, we chatted for about 15 minutes in bed, and when I got up to go to the bathroom, I came back to a dark room and S. turned away from my side of the bed, quickly going to sleep. I tell ya, the level of affection at my house is about nil. We did have a decent chat, though.
I wanted to post a little more because I started thinking about my last post and wondered if I'd told the whole story. I can't remember if I'd posted that S. is having daily stress tribunals at which I am the scapegoat. All of this frustration is pointed at me, because of what *I've* asked him to do (renovate the apartments, which was happening anyway, just maybe not on this schedule), on *my* deadlines (hello?! two of us tangoed to produce Miss Medicine Ball)... so I just wanted to clarify that I wasn't flying off the handle at one little incident. Honestly, I've been the model of listening and validating lately (makes me wonder who's been slipping me the pills), and being careful not to put undue stress on S., and it's getting really hard to deal with my own stress (alone) while listening to S.'s (which is directed at me). Rant over.
