Lately Bilingual Baby has been experimenting with getting expressions of time right. She’ll say things like, “Last time I got a boo boo on my foot.” I reply in a way that helps her find the right phrase to tell her story; in this case she means “this morning” because that’s when she hurt her foot.
The weird part, though, is that I only speak to her in Spanish so my response is to echo back, “Si, esta mañana te lastimaste el pie (Yes, this morning you hurt your foot).” It’s a strange linguistic loop where I’m correcting her English with Spanish. Whatever. It works.
Other conversations we’ve had this week have gone something like this:
Jojo: Ayer voy al parque con mi amiga, Mira (Yesterday I’m going to the park with my friend, Mira).
Me: Hoy vamos al parque con Mira (Today we’re going to the park with Mira).
Jojo: Si, hoy voy al parque con Mira.
Jojo: Mañana fui a mi clase de baila (Tomorrow I went to my ballet class).
Me: Esta mañana fuiste a tu clase de baile (This morning you went to your ballet class)
Jojo: Esta mañana fui a mi clase de baile (This morning I went to my ballet class).
The difference between mañana (tomorrow) and esta mañana (this morning) must be confusing for her. I see her trying out these phrases just so she can get my response and figure out how to use them correctly. Clever girl.
