25
Photos this month courtesy of mama
Adam–
Well, I’ve been harping on it for a year, but this was the month: language happened.
Your mama and I credit, more than anything else, Christmas. The sudden, inexplicable and completely unprecedented (as far as you can remember, anyway) shower of presents must have shocked you into coherent speech. “Santa came! Santa came! Santa came!” remains, nearly a month later, one of your favorite utterances. You will drag me into your room to point adamantly at your Tidmouth Sheds, for example, and explain, “Santa came!” Turning to your Nu-Nu, “Santa came!” And so on, until you have run through every single thing he brought you. As though I might have forgotten it since you saw me last, because you are sure to tell me about this Christmas miracle every day. “When will he get over this?” your mother asks. I am figuring that we’ll be hearing about it for the next eleven months.
Your powers of mimicry have exploded. Pretty much anything we say is apt to be repeated back to us sooner or later, and sometimes we harness this power for our own amusement. We often ask you, “be you angels?” and you ask us the same. Or you might answer “nay!” “Canned peaches” is something you will say just to hear us laugh, despite having no clue as to why we think it’s funny. I have been astonished to hear you say, “Holy crap!” and “It’s easy” and any number of other two-word phrases. After two years + of life with you, we are finally getting to hear your voice for more than a syllable at a time, and we like it. For some reason, though, our efforts to get you to say, “Tobias Fünke” just get a standard “NO!” thrown back in our faces.
Other favorite words include funk, stench, and vile.
It’s not all mimicry. You have learned a few key phrases, notably the Magical Words of Courtesy. “I’m sorry” is particularly adorable, and with your behavior you have to deploy it A LOT. You’ve also been beginning the day by snuggling up to your mama as she wakes to tell her “Kocham cie” [I love you]. You even sing along with the nightly Polish lullaby, though I am sure you won’t be quitting your day job.
You know the names of pretty much everything in the house, and like to drag us around explaining complicated stuff to us. You can name the key residents of the Hundred Aker Wood (your favorite is “EE-AH”) and are up to speed on all your colors (personal favorite: “oran joos”). Your playing gets ever more interesting, and with your birthday and then Christmas loot, you’ve been branching out in some interesting directions. You love your new, smaller Legos and will spend long hours building “structures” with them, and the Play-Doh minting of bunny coins has become a nightly ritual.
Now here’s the bad news: this is the last monthly report you’re likely to have to yourself. In fact, this writing-on-deadline thing’s days may be numbered, and we may have to come to some other sort of arrangement in the coming months and years. But we’ll never love you any less.
Awww.
Comment by Jane — Saturday 13 January 07 @ 19.16 MST+2.00
Adam is too cute. Can’t wait to see the first Adam/Aleks update. I’ll bet his vocab expands exponentially now that he has competition. ;-)
Comment by gwynne — Sunday 14 January 07 @ 23.42 MST+2.00