Originally, I wanted to post three times a month, but you can see how well that's going. If I don't write tonight or tomorrow, January will be out altogether and then I may as well give up, so here it goes.
The babies are doing well, though I guess they are both clearly toddlers by now. Jonathan's a little joy.
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| Our little joy of a boy |
His new obsession is Dora the Explorer (which he calls "ba-ba" after the backpack character), but we only have one set of two DVD's (four episodes), so everyone in the house pretty much has them memorized by now. And he's learning things from them. Ever hear a two-year-old try to say "octagon"? It's pretty cool. "Oc-da-goy" or some such thing. He mourns each closing credits, and does a happy dance of joy when the next opening song comes on.
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| My babies' new love |
His vocabulary is definitely expanding, though you pretty much have to know what he's talking about beforehand to understand what he's saying. There are a few exceptions. He says the word "happy" clearly and precisely, which is a great word to know. He's doing well on the important people in his life. Nanny is "Nanna" (and, incidentally, so is "banana.") Dada was the first person he could call, and every now and then he manages an actual "Daddy." "Mamma" took him a while, but he's making up for lost time. It seems he's gotten much more mommy-focused now that he can say my name.
Chinese has all sorts of words of siblings, depending on whether it's for a boy or girl and whether they are younger or older. (If I remember correctly from our neighbors growing up,
Korean is worse. Then you have to take in account whether it's a boy or girl saying it.) So, an older boy is called "gege" in Chinese, which is what Jonathan is called around the house and what he calls himself. (To add to the confusion, though, he's "didi" -- younger brother -- to most kids on the playground because everyone uses family terms, not just actual family.) It's not surprising that Jonathan has picked up on this as a self-designation, because "gege" is just so much easier to say than "Jonathan." What's funny is that originally, he would call Vivienne "gege," too. It took us a while to figure out that this was what he meant, but we have since gotten him to call her "mei-mei," the correct term for little sister. I think he may have found it hard to distinguish his "mamma's" and his "mei-mei"'s at first, but he's doing better with it now. Outside the family, he says "Ma-ai" for Uncle Mike, but that's pretty much it. He likes the letter poster we have up in the living room. For some reason, he knows the letter "Y". He does seem to like that "ai" diphthong. "Eye," "hi," and "bye" were among his very first words. Anyway, we're waiting for any sentence beyond "Hi, da!" and "Bye, da!" (which are usually used for daddy but not always), but in the meantime, we're getting a kick out of Jonathan's ever-expanding vocabulary (though a few final consonants would be nice.)
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| Ge-ge helps his mei-mei with her coat zipper. |
Escalators are one of his latest obsessions. He's angry if we go to the mall and only one parent with a stroller is there so we have to take the elevator. Actually, Stephen would just take the stroller on the escalator (even the double one) but mommy is not so brave. (He started doing this because we would be in the MRT station and I would say "We need to find the elevator," but he would hear "escalator" since his British mind considers elevators to be "lifts." Actually, he's only confused when they are both present. If there are only elevators, he's fine with the term.) The best place for escalators is the nearby department store -- which, thanks to Baskin Robbins, is also the best place for ice cream. On a recent outing I took him there and let him choose his own flavor from the picture menu. Now, Jonathan does not have a vast experience with ice cream flavors, but he zoned in immediately on the picture of the yellow scoop of lemon sherbet. I tried to dissuade him since I wasn't sure the sourest flavor was really what he wanted, but he insisted. I got him a taster spoon of it and he gobbled it up, so he got his own bowl of lemon sherbet, and I (and the lady next to me) got a kick out of watching him industriously eat the whole bowl. Apparently, ice cream eating is serious business. I feared we would learn what a "brain freeze" was, he was eating so fast, but he seemed to find only joy in that cup of sherbet. (He also stole bites of mommy's mint chocolate chip since I was a slower eater, so I think maybe he's going to end up being an equal-opportunity ice-cream eater.) It will be interesting to see if he still goes for the lemon next time we go or if it was a one-off deal. It's watching how much joy he gets out of little things like lemon sherbet and escalators, pigeons and parrots, iPads and Dora, the moon and the stars, or even a simple little trip to 7-11 across the street that makes life with a two-year-old so much fun, albeit exhausting. It's a big, beautiful world just waiting to be discovered, and it's nice to see it that way through his eyes.
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Jonathan polishes off my mint chocolate chip (notice the
green on his forehead) after finishing his own lemon sherbet. |
Well, I was going to write about Vivienne and the saga of trying to get her to sleep in a crib, but that will have to wait for another day -- or month. Goodnight.
