bilingual boy

My Maternal Child Health Nurse was going through her checklist at our 4 month visit.

"So, does he respond to his name?"

I bit my lip. "Ummmm...." I really had to think about it. Admittedly Luke probably thinks his name is poo-bum, or refers to that as time to change his nappy.

I also call him 'Bubby Boy'.
"Why are you calling him a pig!?" Asked my confused husband one day - 'Babi' in bahasa means pig.

But does Luke know his name? Right at this moment I am trying to get him to sleep. He has gotten out of his wrap and is now rolling around and making typical baby noises. I said in a stern voice, "Luke!"... He looked at me and laughed. I wonder if he thinks it's his name or just another funny noise I make.

I got this in an email I subscribe to which gives me week-by-week guides to my baby:

Even though you can't understand your baby, he's beginning to be able to understand you. That's why it's important to talk to him as you move through the day. Narrate what you're doing: "Here's your bottle." "Ready for your bath?" In a few months he'll understand you perfectly when you say the word "bottle" or "bath." You don't have to be a nonstop chatterbox — babies appreciate quiet, too. All you need to do is converse with him like the little companion he is.

(Read more here)

It made me think about how we speak to Luke, and even how we interact as a family.

Come to our house and you will probably get lost. Naturally, Hendrik and I speak in two languages. We have certain words that automatically come out in Bahasa Indonesia. Some words just stay in English because we can't be bothered. It probably comes across as rude that we automatically just speak Indonesian, but please be assured that we don't do it on purpose.

It made me wonder how Luke will acquire language. We speak very mixed to the point where he will probably think it is all one language. How he will communicate with both sets of parents (one only speaking English, the other speaking no English) will indeed be interesting.

Even when we talk to him, we use both languages. When it's time to eat I say.. "are you hungry?" (with the -gry part of the word very high pitched). Hendrik bathes him every night at says "mau mandi?" (do you want a bath?). I sometimes will speak Bahasa to Luke and he laughs at me.

Something I will be exploring is how to raise a bilingual baby. It's very high on my priority list!

Is there more than one language in your house? How do you manage these languages?