Spain Dad, a baby blog

April’s friend Seda was telling her about one of her PhD friends who was pregnant while she was trying to finish her doctoral dissertation. Her friend said, “I get dumber every day and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Sunday when we were at Damian and Encarna’s for lunch, April was too tired, so she was having a hard time speaking Spanish. She wasn’t getting frustrated about it. She was just too tired to care.

I wanted to say, “She’s okay, really, she’s just getting dumber every day. It’s quite amazing, really.”

But I had better judgment.

This is all part of a longer story about learning languages. April and I have always learned languages together. We studied Spanish at the same high school. We took the same government classes in Madrid. The same goes for Dutch. We both studied in Amsterdam during college and learned some Dutch. In almost every regard, we speak at the same level.

However, we have our differences. I think it’s safe to say I try harder. I read books in Spanish. I talk to myself in Spanish while I’m making dinner. I have a weekly language exchange with a guy named Marcos.

Still, April learns as much as I do. I don’t know how she does it. She’s just smart. She pays close attention to things. In fact, most people say she learns more.

I remember one day having tea with our host mom in Amsterdam. She looked at April and said, “You’ve learned Dutch very quickly. You must have a knack for languages.” I was feeling pretty good about our improvement until I realized she wasn’t talking to me. “Kelly. You seem to struggle,” she said. Much less inspired by this thought, she moved along to the next topic of conversation.

So, you see. I’ve been patiently waiting my turn. I realize it’s not nice to take advantage of your pregnant wife, especially when she feels dumber every day because she has to read articles like “The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalised Economy” or “An Introduction to Development and the Anthropology of Modernity.“

Still, seeing pregnancy is a temporary thing, I can’t see how it will hurt anyone if I enjoy a brief moment of brilliance.

Seems smart to me, don’t you think?