Amhaglish

The truth is, on an average day I understand:

• 94% of what Joshua says to me (his English is superb... we just get stuck on some words because of accent issues (his and mine) or there are some English words he just hasn't discovered yet.
• 50% of what Ruth and Dibora say to me - they came with no English skills and are slowly but surely learning.  I am so incredibly proud of their efforts!  I would never do as well learning Amharic as they are doing with English.

So... you can see our days are filled with a mixture of English and Amharic... I like to refer to it as Amhaglish.  (And lots of sign language!)

Since the majority of what I listen to all day long is Amharic... when I hear American kids speak English it amazes me. I look at them like they have 10 heads and stare at them as if they are in a foreign country.  My mind is then jogged and I am reminded: that is the language this country uses!
This morning, when Dibora came to crawl in bed with me (Ed was in the Shower)... she looked at me and asked in a complete sentence, "Mom, where is Daddy?"  (in her incredibly sweet Amharic accent)
I had to actually pause... Wait a minute! I understood that! I didn't have to translate that in my head! 
This is all bittersweet for me. While I am over-the-moon happy they are learning English and will be able to communicate with folks outside of our home... I am also sad to see their Amharic become less and less.
I am going to keep taking videos of them because I don't want to forget these Amahaglish days!  They are too sweet.