Broken

The dropleaf table attached to our kitchen wall has begun coming loose lately. We have stopped letting Xander sit at the chairs near the table, because once he's in the chair there is no stopping him from leaning on the table. I tell him the table is broken and that's why he has to sit in his high chair. A couple of times he has responded by telling me his high chair is broken, too. This boy is becoming quite a negotiator!

Zorro needs his own seat

The other day our whole family was sitting down to dinner. Johnny and Xander were already seated, but Zorro the cat was sitting in the one remaining kitchen chair. I pushed Zorro down and sat, and Johnny commented, "Zorro needs his own seat." I think this was the first time Xander understood the meaning of the word own. He kept repeating Johnny's statement in a singsong voice throughout the entire meal. The next day he asked me for his "own iPop." That's when I knew he really got the meaning of the word own.

yes-yes

Lately when I ask Flash if he wants something, he often says yes-yes. Or so I thought, until I heard him say it at daycare. Luciana responded, "de nada." Aww, he's been saying gracias all this time!

Would you like some water?
Gracias.

It's cold. Let's put on your mittens.
Gracias.

"I meant to do that"

Rawr!

Vocabulary avalanche!

These past few weeks we've been hearing a lot of new words every day. Sometimes we wonder if they're in Spanish, or we're just misunderstanding. But it's been a lot of fun to be able to communicate so much more.

We've been hearing a lot of menu requests, especially for: pizza, hummus, sushi, and 'bucha (= kombucha). He knows the word eat, but goes about asking in a different way. First, he indicates the food he wants. "Pizza." And we say something like, "yes, that box does have a picture of a pizza on it" (in the freezer case of the grocery store, say). If he isn't given any pizza to eat at that point, he'll add, "mouf" and point to his mouth. It's so funny and cute.

There have also been a lot of attempts at words for exciting vehicles and technology devices: airpane, fire truck (= any emergency services vehicle with sirens and flashing lights), bus, ipod, 'mote (= remote) ... and yesterday a really ambitious one: ewe-wator (= elevator). We were astounded.

Feeding Ty-Ty's Bear

Yesterday we had an extremely thrilling visit to Grandpa Ty's house. We spent time coloring, playing the piano, and blowing bubbles, but the best game of all was feeding the bear. Xander invented a game in which he goes to the fireplace, picks up a pinecone from the bowl there, sets it on the red plate on the coffee table for a moment while blowing on it, holding his hand over it and saying, "hot," and then brings it over to the end table and sets it in front of the bear, saying, "eat." Then of course this is repeated over and over and over. So cute!

Xander has been talking about going back to "Ty-Ty house" every time we put his jacket on since then.