Words!

Léo has been understanding English and French quite well and he's talking more and more. Here's a little update of his vocabulary at almost 22 months (TWENTY TWO?!? Wow...)

- He says mama (sometimes "momon" for maman) and dada or daddy. He says "babi" for papi. He says "pa" for grandpa. He also knows the name of two friends at school "zzza" is Jack and "Mani" is Amani.
- He usually only pronounces two phonemes and not the end of the words: Ba(ll), bu(s), bi(rd) -actually he says "boo" for bird and "boo" is also for balloon-, boa(t), bi(ke), baba (byebye). So many baby words start with a B. At first he couldn't pronounce "p" and only said "b" (bea for pea = please. ba for pa = grandpa) but now he knows Ps!
- "Hai" for hi. He says hi to a lot of people. What a cutie!
- He says "non." Not "no" but "non." That's his only French word! For yes he has a high pitched "mmm."
- Of course he says "baba" for bottle and for anything that contains liquid.
- He says "dagay" and "agaaaaay" for again. He says that word about 408 times a day.
- "Doh" for go. When he watches sports on TV he says to the players "doh, doh, dho!"
- He uses a lot of sounds. Looots of sounds. All things that go have a sound as do all animals. Food is just "mmmm." His pillow and blanket have the same sound, kind of a silent snore "zzzzz."
- He shakes his body left-right-left to mean music.
- He says "nana" for banana and "appo" for apple, oranges, pears, and any fruit that's round.
- He has his own counting system: "bee boh da" are 1, 2, 3. I don't know how he came up with that but he's super consistent. And because we count stairs when he takes them, stairs are "bee-boh-da."
- Elmo is "Lala" because that's what he sings. Cookie Monster is "rwarwa", as are cookies. He knows the name of "Abby."
- He says "pea" and "tatoo" for please and thank you. He's quite polite, I must say.
- He knows the letter "o" because we keep on showing him the letters of his name and say "L-E-O-O-O-O." So he points to the "o" and says "o-o-o-o." His name is "élo" or "eelo." He says his name 1,010 times a day!!
- Other random words: "guitah" for guitar, "soo" for shoes, "boo" for blue and blueberry (and grapes because they look like blueberries!).
- He only puts two words together now. "Eelo doh," "baba pea" and so on.
- He points at the rest to show us what he means and it works really well!

That's it for now, I think. It's really neat to hear him try new words. He's not in any hurry to speak more because we all understand each other rather well.

2012 Recap

Happy New Year!
Bonne année 2013.
I wish you all a year of joy, love, and fulfillment.

It seems that 2012 came and went. A lot happened! I stayed with the same organization but have a new job that I love. I visited three new countries (2 for work, 1 for leisure). I also took 3 domestic trips for work and as many to visit family. Léo turned one, learnt to walk, is learning to speak, and has been delightful year round. He finally has been sleeping through the night for 3 weeks straight. Joseph had a great year at work and now has a really great opportunity to open a new branch. Finally my dad and brother visited us at the end of the year -great way to end the year!

Next year promises to be exciting as well. We're going to travel to Europe in the spring. We are thinking about buying a house (I can't give too many details right now but they'll come in due time). We're also thinking of Baby #2 in the near future (+ 9 months obviously!). I will travel again for work, mostly to El Salvador, which I'm really excited about -I'm a little less excited that my first trip there is in just a week because I'll miss my baby but hey, at least I get to travel. This year Léo will turn two and will probably talk a great deal. I can see fun and tantrums in the future!

As we were watching the fireworks ringing in the new year I thought that this year I don't have resolutions. I don't even have great expectations. I am just going to enjoy the ride. I do have some resolution-ish thoughts (be kinder to the dogs, eat healthier, save money, smile more) but nothing specific that can be broken after 2 weeks! I'm ready for 2013.