Excommunication

When you are expecting your first child, everything is exciting and extraordinary. You're totally exhilarated, don't know what to expect (except the obvious) and in case you're me, you tend to examine all kinds of tables with examples of age-related milestones. Now, when you're expecting your second born, things are a little different. Because, of course, you know what to expect, right? But that's just what you think. You are better off not expecting to know what to expect and you should definitely refrain from extrapolating from your previous experiences. Because the existence of 50% gene-overlap counts for exactly nothing. Zero that is.

For example, my first born exceeded my expectations concerning his expressive language development. At 19 months his vocabulary consisted of an exceptionally well pronounced 300-something words, some words more exclusive than others (can anybody explain why a child this age would need the word 'label'?). Now, I honestly did not expect my second born to be exactly the same. And it is not that he is at the other extreme with no words to express himself. But his pronunciation is extraordinary, exquisite and very exclusive (or in this case, I should say very INclusive), with most words falling into either one of three categories: auto, tuttel and behh.

Within the category 'auto':

ootoo (auto/car)

tatooh (tractor/tractor)

otoonn (open/open)

ootehh (oma/grandma)

tootehh (broodje/bread)

tooteh (vogel/bird)

The category 'tuttel' (cuddly blanket):

tuttehh (tuttel/cuddly blanket)

titteh (zitten/sit)

tietuh (vliegtuig, airplane)

ditteh (drinken/drink)

ditteh/dit (dicht/shut)

tietteh (fiets/bike)

tuiteh (buiten/outside)

tuttah (Lucas/Lucas) (who - by the way - does not appreciate being called a cuddly blanket)

thitheh (visje/fish)

tijteh (kijken/look)

And the category 'behh':

bah (bah/bwegh)

boo (boom/tree)

ba (bal/ball)

bui (buik/tummy)

The less exclusive, 'other' category:

nee (no), o-o!, kaaa! (klaar/done), koe (cow), jaaa! (lamp/lamp), kaa! (kaas/cheese), papa (daddy), mama (mommy, toettoet (sound of car), aai (hug), kie-ke-boe (peekaboo), haa (haar/hair), tnnn (teen/toe), neu (neus/nose), pepehh (piemel/private parts), wawa (hond/dog)

And last, and also least category 'English':

car, go, eaja (ear), choochoo, hi

Think I'm exaggerating? You'll just have to excuse me.

Talk about...

Lucas' talk.

Lately, I haven't given you any updates on the progress in English (and Dutch too) he's been making, so this blog is dedicated to him. In Dutch his favorite words include 'denk ik' (I think) and 'eigenlijk' (actually). Also, he's been working on his subordinate clauses with 'omdat' (because), which I think is actually a big coincidence, because I'm currently working on a project to get normative data on the Dutch RTNA (Renfrew Taalsschalen Nederlandse Aanpassing; Renfrew Language Scales) and get to see all kinds of data on subordinate clauses of children aged 4 to 8.

But... back to Lucas' talk:

If you can count it, you can have it:
all the numbers from one to 14, but mostly the following sequence: 'een, twee, drie, vier, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven'
Apparently, this is precisely what should happen according to second language acquisition theories as a friend who just finished his PhD thesis on code switching told me. But for those of you who are interested in the code-switching thing, you'll have to wait for my column in the Tijdschrift voor Orthopedagogiek.

Do's and don'ts:
jumpen, flyen, sit, march, have, want, drink, look, sleep, come, run

The more the merrier: add 'm ons:

little, big, more, blue, red, yellow (pronounced lello), purple, up, down, fast

Under my bed:
butterfly, bumblebee, ladybug, monkey, elephant, doggie, cat, dinosaur, dragon, rabbit (no, it ain't a bunny, it's a frog)

I want to ride on a..:
firetruck

But also in a:
bus, car, bike, airplane, choochoo train (AKA choochoo, AKA train, AKA Thomas)

Say it nicely:
thank you, please, good morning, hi, bye bye, my name is...,

But if you don't:
no (pronounced with an exclamation mark at the end), yes, come on, stop it, high five, everybody sit down, hands up, let's go, go away, ready, set, go! who's that? I want

Own up:
mine (accompanied by hitting if necessary), my, I, you (the last one only in combination with the aforementioned other own ups)

Grown up:
daddy, mommy, miss, doctor


And then some:
shoe, hat, crackers, ball (pronounced bow), moon, star, rain


Not quite there yet:
rainboog, sandbax

Music to my ears:
the wheels of the bus-song, twinkle twinkle little star, abc-song (although the double u is sung as hebbayou and results in a indefinite loop involving hebbeayous unless we manage to save him), five little monkeys are jumping on the bed, happy birthday to you, jingle bells, itsy bitsy spider, the ants go marching in, caring hearts song

First home-made sentence: I have cars (uttered on 1 july, 2011)

And I know I forgot a lot of things, so I'll post another blog soon.

It's my way or the highway

Kwint:"Grrrrr."
Me: "O really, is that so?"
Kwint: "Dadadadaa."
Me: "Well whaddaya know"
Kwint: "Tata. Bwww."
Just a sample of the conversations I have with my youngest (11 months). But I suspect he's hiding the truth from me: that he can actually say real words. I know it, because of these little amused smiles he gives me when I try to coax the word mama out of him. "Mama! Say ma-ma! You can do it, ma-ma!" But instead, he winks, curls his nose and proudly pronounces me 'Bwwwww'. And when you think you've heard it all, then let me tell you what he does next. He turns his head ever so slightly, clacks his tongue and looks me in the eye expectantly. And what else can I do but clack back?

Although I can't keep up with Lucas' developing language, here are some samples:

"kijk mama, een doggie!"
"I love youuu"
"Dat is mine he?"
"Who's dit?"
"Ik wil jou een hug geven"
"Everybody SIT DOWN." (Now where would that come from?)

And of course, all the words from 'Happy birthday to you'. Although, really, there aren't that many different words in that song.

When we're on the subject of stubborn minds, I might as well talk about a conversation I had with Lucas, aka mister Negotiator. He still has these afternoon naps (of three hours!), and I recently started waking him before the three hours are up. But the little man does not like that. So following a careful wake-up procedure involving hugs, kisses, tickles and whatnot, I have to lure him out of bed.
"Maybe you want to watch a little television?"
Lucas: "Welllllll, no, I don't think so."
"Hmmm." Feverishly looking for alternative bait... "Some crackers?"
Lucas: "Wellllll, no. I don't think so." (a moment of silence). "But I want some cookies."

A day in L.A.

As I might have mentioned before, I have been planning a trip to L.A. in order to attend a workshop on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). And I have been there! And came back! The summary of my trip? I met a lot of interesting people, I learned a lot, I saw a lot, and waited even more.

For those of you more interested in a more in-depth analysis here it comes:

Interesting people:

There were people from all around, including Japan. This turned out to be very unfortunate since the news of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit us on the second day of the workshop. Although definitely not comparable to the disaster in Japan, the coastal area of California (where we live) also got a warning sign because of the tsunami. But fortunately the effect of the tsunami was negligible in the Bay area.

At the workshop, I've talked to several people, all of whom had interesting stories. Of course most people were working in the field of autism, so it was not difficult to find some common ground. In addition I sorta 'met' two children, who were part of the live demonstration of the ADOS. Isn't it amazing that the kids got up on stage in order to be assessed with the ADOS in front of a hundred people? Even more so when you think that there were quite a few people in the audience who declined the opportunity to talk into the microphone.  Really! I'm not kidding. They were afraid to talk into the microphone to discuss their ideas and passed it to someone next to them who did not show microphonebia.

Things I've learned:

I am now familiar with the ADOS. It has to be said that it is an amazing instrument with a lot of potential. But it is also very difficult to score it in a reliable fashion. The ADOS consists of semi-structured tasks that try to provoke a certain type of social or communicative behavior in a semi-natural way. Although it has specific tasks, you don't actually score the actual performance on these tasks, but score the overall behavior you saw during the session. This has many advantages, but it means it's also difficult to asses whether some type of behavior was good enough to give full credit. Since the main difficulty of the instrument lies in its scoring, most of the workshop was dedicated to discussion on the scoring of the live demonstrations. As stated, we had to discuss our findings within the group. Yes, with the microphone. In addition to my new DSM classification of microphonebia, I also found out that people see very different things even when they are looking at the same thing. It wasn't just differences in opinion concerning the label of 'slightly unusual behavior' and 'normal behavior', scoring went from 'normal behavior' to 'downright off-the-wall behavior'. Especially when we got to talking about stereotyped behavior and specific interests, people differed in their observations and interpretations. The interesting thing was, once somebody saw one particular behavior that was considered to be stereotyped, other people joined with other examples and so the list got longer and longer. So the main thing I've learned concerning the ADOS, it requires a lot of practice. Not to administer it, but to score it.

Another important thing I've learned: remember your room number when you stay in a hotel.

Things I saw:

(not uncommon) psychologists playing a game on their iPhone or Smart phone during the workshop. Makes you wonder whether they do the same during a psychological assessment or interview with parents...

L.A. by night on a tour bus. This was a lot of fun, especially since some other people from the workshop also got on the same tour. We've seen it all. Well, ok, technically we mainly saw Hollywood. But that was amazing. Film sets, Universal City, the Chinese theatre (with the hand prints), the place where the Oscars are being held, the walk of fame (with the stars), you name it. Oh and we've seen 'tha ghetto' although that was not in the original itinerary. During our ride back to the hotel, we found ourselves in the midst of a huge traffic accident and we had to find an exit. This exit consisted of our tour bus going from the far left lane to the outer right lane in the midst of all the confusion (yes we had close calls), and exiting straight into the ghetto. Not that we saw scary things or anything.

Things I waited for:

Not for the food. Boy, they serve things quickly around here. But I did wait for airplanes, checks, lectures, breaks, toilet visits (there were about a hundred people visiting a social oriented workshop, you guess which line was longest, the boy's or the girl's...).

Featuring Lucas' talk. He's getting the hang of this English thing, and the translation of it:

Dad (to Kwint): "Nee, dat mag niet."

Lucas: "nee is no he? NO!"

Lucas: "Flyyyyyyy!"

Lucas: "wiels of de bus go wound en wound... up en down"

Lucas: "Mama, kijk! Mommy, look!"

Lucas (hoort een slaapmuziekje op de radio): "Sleep, sleep!"

Mama: "Kijk Lucas, dat zijn twee auto's. Two cars."

Lucas: "Dat is een twocar he?"

And funny Dutch things:

Lucas: "Mama, waar is de radido?"

Lucas: "Ik wil graag naar papa toe."

No biggie

This week's theme of 'no biggie' is brought to you by childhood diseases, cars, flying over to L.A. and tummies. Maybe I should explain myself.
1. Childhood diseases.
After almost three years without any serious childhood diseases, we've finally been struck by one. We found out that Lucas has a certain type of whooping cough. Since the likelihood of us all getting infected was big (and we are in fact ill, just don't know whether this is whooping cough), it was advised that we should all take antibiotics. So we're officially all on antibiotics. By the way, I love this 24-hour economy thing they've got going on. I actually called the advice nurse on Thursday evening (11 pm), who was nice enough to give us advice (probably in her job description, hence the name advice nurse). She also set us up with an appointment for the next morning. I could pick up the meds for Lucas straight after the appointment. Then I actually got a call from the doctor herself on SUNDAY with the results of the lab test and was able to pick up the meds for Kwint and ourselves on Sunday as well. No biggie.
2. Cars.
How come I always find myself in between cars like the one in the picture? And it's not that our car is tiny, it's just that those other cars are huge. No biggie.
3. Flying over to L.A.
Tomorrow I will just happen to catch a flight to L.A. for a couple of days for my ADOS workshop. Pop in and out of the airplane, pop in and out of the Hilton hotel I'll stay in. No biggie.
4. Tummies.
Lucas is having some trouble with his tummy. He is kind of potty trained, but does not want to do a number 2 on the toilet or in his diaper for that matter. He's keeping it all in, which results in huge bellies until he can no longer hold it. Poor little dude. We now started on prunes, since that helped him when he was still a baby. No biggie.

Featuring Lucas' developing English:
"Mommy's coming" (Yes, we're on to sentences now)

Featuring humoristic language by Lucas:
"Wat is dat nou voor onzin?" (This was said when Lucas was reading a book about a little man called onzin. Lucas is currently in a habit to ask 'wat is dat nou voor...' when he sees or hears anything. I guess it's something to do with the why phase, although he doesn't quite grasp the concept of why yet.)

Today was the day...

I learned what Lucas really means when he sings: "Friar Chuck, Friar Chuck". Anyone want to hazard a guess?

The word of the day...

...recondite. Yes. I found it in Terry Pratchett's book 'The last continent'. And I didn't have the faintest idea what it meant. So I looked it up. And the first entry in the online dictionary was: abstruse. Well whaddaya know. Who would have thought that? Not me. Because I didn't have the slightest idea what abstruse meant either. So, I read a little more. And what irony, because the definition of recondite turns out to be:

"difficult or impossible for one of ordinary understanding or knowledge to comprehend"

Well, I guess they got that right when they invented that word. I imagine the conversation went something like this:

 J: "Oi George, how are we doing in the word-department? Earth is all created, and there's no sense for the people of ordinary understanding to wait much longer now is there?"
G: "Well Jeff, we're just about finished. But we still have to invent a word for un-understandable."
J:  "Yes. Un-understandable just won't do. It would be way too understandable for one of ordinary understanding."
G: "How does abstruse sound?"
J:  "Well George, I think you're on to something. Still a tongue-twister, but no one of ordinary understanding will grasp the meaning of that."
G: "I don't think one word is enough though."
J:  "You're right, there should be another word. That will boggle the minds of ones of ordinary understanding all right."
J:  "Do you think recondite will do?"
G: "Well, it has a familiar ring to it. But it will do perfectly."
J:  "Great. Well, I guess we're all done then. Let's get the people of ordinary understanding out there and have ourselves a good laugh."

Crouching tiger, hidden dragon

Remember my blog about crouching tiger? Meet hidden dragon. He is crouching tiger's big brother.

Featuring Lucas' talk (both Dutch and English):

In the aquarium:
Lucas: "Waar is papa?"
Ik: "Papa geeft Kwint even een schone luier, hij is even met Kwint naar de w.c."
Lucas: (met een hele hoge stem) "Een hele kleine w.c., he, voor Kwint?"


At home:
Ik: "Lucas, give me high five!"
Lucas: (gives me high five) "Ten! Dat is ten, he?"

Ik: "Lucas, je mag nog heel even spelen, daarna ga je naar bed."
Lucas: "Mag ik nog een heleboel spelen?"

Lucas: "Wil jij ook neus peuteren?"

To dabble in scrabble

Instead of a pseudo-scientific blog, I thought I'd try a folkore blog with us being in a different culture and all. The problem is that I have not seen many folkloristic/cultural things here (if you don't count the occasional American flag, or patriotic car sticker). So you have to settle for old traditional board games. Enter Scrabble. Of all the nice games we have (Colonists, Munchkin, Carcassonne and such), Scrabble is just an old favourite. It's loads of fun to try to create long, weird words that boggle your mind and the mind of your opponent ("Is that even a word?"). Since we've moved to California we agreed that Scrabble should be played in English rather than Dutch. This made me question whether the distribution of letters would differ for both languages. I know you would agree with me that this is something that would fit smugly within the category of 'useless knowledge', but here it comes. The frequence of almost all letters differs for both languages, but the most notable differences can be found in the letters E and N (which have the highest frequency in the Dutch version), and the letters A and I (which have the highest frequency in the English version). When you think about it, it's not so strange, since these letters have high frequency in either Dutch or English. By the way, did you know that if you play all seven letters on your plate, it's called Bingo?
We admit to having cheated for an English word with the letter X. This also happens to be the letter which Lucas has learned last week.

In the category learning English, this is what Lucas came up with:

"Mag ik een toesjoe?" (by which he probably refers to a tissue)

For plain-old Dutch phrases:

Sinosaurus (his favourite animal at the moment)

So, maybe I should stick with pseudo-scientific blogs, right?

Oodles of noodles

Since the previous blog might have scared some of you off, I thought I should discuss a more mundane subject one this blog. So there it is, I will write about noodles. Rice noodles to be more specific. Cause don't you just hate the mess they make when you try to make yourself a simple soup? Before you know it, your kitchen looks like a giant mikado-fair which has just been hit by a hurricane. And what's with the whole portions-thing? As these 'separate' portions are impossible to disentangle, why do they bother?

Now, the reason I named this blog 'Oodles of noodles' is a dream I've had for a long time while writing my thesis. Whenever I felt a bit down, I imagined starting a little Asian restaurant and naming it 'Oodles of Noodles'. So, this name just happened to pop up in my head recently, and I thought I'd just give it a google. And whaddaya know, there are plenty of restaurants with that name. Darn. Oh well, I liked the idea mostly because of the name.


So featuring Lucas's language we've been having interesting pieces of conversations lately:

Lucas:   "De warming is aan. Hij doet fww" (verwarming)

Ik:         "En wat komt er dan door de verwarming?"

Lucas:    (grote ogen) "VUUR!"

"Het ligt op de table."

Lucas: "Een ei!"

Ik:       "Ja, en weet je hoe ze dat bij jou op school noemen?"

Lucas: "Nee."

Ik:       "Een egg."

Lucas: "Neeeeeeee"

Lucas: "Zometeen komt de zon weer op, he?"
Ik:       "Nee joh, het is nu nacht, jij gaat zo lekker slapen. De zon is ook aan het slapen."
Lucas: "Waar is het bedje van de zon?"
Ik:       "Nou uhhh...de zon is helemaal boven geweest in de lucht, en toen ging hij helemaal naar beneden,
            en nu slaapt hij in zijn bedje aan de horizon".
Lucas: "Twee zonnen he?"

Lost in translation

So Lucas is starting to use more English words.. That's good right? Well, the problem is, some things get lost in translation. His new (understandable) English vocabulary includes:

• byebye
• yes
• dank you (we'll have to work on that one)
• Larry (dunno if we'll use that often)
• mommy

So, ok that might not be that much, but we're getting somewhere. In Dutch he's able to produce very complex sentences (sometimes also non-understandable). His latest funny remark:

• "Ik ga in wandelen". So this would be the equivalent of going outside for a walk, only then inside.
• He's crazy about cars, and luckily they've got lots of those around here. His favourite in traffic? "Een jeeps".