jabon

2 cool things today:

1. Amado is starting to put together 3 word sentences. Its really cool to see his little/big mind at work. What's funny about it is that he says his three-word-sentences like they are 3 consecutive one word sentences. Each word is so so carefully chosen like perfectly ripe fruit. Today, we were doing laundry. We make a lot of effort to incorporate him into taking care of the house for a lot of reasons - because he is so enthusiastic about helping, because he doesnt need fancy schools and DVDs to learn when he can learn by doing everyday things (ive been reading some of that "montessori in the home" stuff) and because he's a boy and really need to know how to clean a house. Wow, that was off topic. So anyways, we were doing laundry this morning. One of his jobs is to pour the soap into the machine. If he had it his way, he would pour in the whole 72-load-bottle. So today, after he pours in an appropriate amount that I have pre-measured, he says: "Mas. Jabon. Mami." So cool!

2. Tonight, after I nursed him to sleep, I am tranferring him from the bed to the cuna and he says, "Jabon." Clear as day, like he was completely awake. What?

no calle

We had an incident a couple weeks ago, I won't tell all the long details but it involved an enthusiastic Amado returning home from hanging out with Rory, a distracted Mama looking at the Valentine card he had made, and the street in front of our house.

In his excitement and with my distraction (yes, not my best parenting moment), Amado ran into the street, around the opposite side of the car. He wanted to say something to Lumina, who was still in her carseat. Rory yelled, I jumped and grabbed him hard (the way you would grab a kid who had just run into the street), he cried because he thought we were mad, the whole thing degenerated pretty quickly. Now mind you, he was never REALLY in danger - there were no cars coming - but you know, it was an emotional experience for him.

And here we are weeks later, and about 5-10 times a day, says "no calle", "no calle", while shaking his finger at the street.

So, a couple days ago, he was hanging out on the front porch and he sees Oso, who is the next door neighbor's dog, wandering outside of our place.

"Oso! Oso! Ven!" Amado calls. (except he says "Men")
Oso continues on.
"Oso, no calle. No calle".
His voice is calm, but clear. He is like, clearly this dog does not know that you are not supposed to be playing this close to the street.
He reached his little arm through the bars on our porch and is shaking his finger at Oso / the calle.
"Oso, ven. No calle. No calle."
So of course, Oso walks right into the middle of the street, crosses it, and heads up 63rd. He is walking away, and Amado is standing there watching him.
"Bye-bye, wow-wow" Amado says, and turns around and comes back in the house.

It was so funny because he basically washed his hands of the situation. He was like, I did what I could, but now this dog (no longer called by his proper name) is on his own.

praise

Jason and Amado were laying on the living room floor coloring in one of his coloring books last night.
Amado looked up, studied Jason's picture, and said "Muy bien, papi" in this really sincere, honest, voice. It was really sweet - I guess he knows it feels good to have your art complimented, so he was returning the favor.

Kenji dice heiwa

We were reading his peace book again (we are always reading that book) and I turn to the page with Kenji on it.

I say "Kenji vive en-"
"Japon" says Amado.
What? Did he really just say Japon?
"Wow, Amado! Muy bien!"
He is clearly proud of himself, but looks a little amused that I am so surprised.
I keep reading.
"Kenji dice-"
"Heiwa" says Amado.

Man, how cool is that.

On another note, Amado has also recently picked up expressions that I didn't realize I use until well, they started being repeated to me.

We were making pizza the other night and Amado was distributing the goat cheese on the pizza. He would pinch a little off the block, and drop it on the pizza. Pinch a little bt off and eat some himself. Next pinch, pizza. Next pinch, in his mouth. Several minutes later its clear that this is not gonna work so I tell Amado that he has had enough for now, that he will eat more when he gets his slice of pizza after it comes out of the oven. "Oh, man!" he says. It probably doesnt sound that funny in writing, but its pretty halarious.

Peace, Paz, Paix

I was gone all last weekend at a Board-Staff retreat for the Women of Color Resource Center. Consequently, Amado saw very little of me all weekend - I left right after he woke up and came home after he was already in bed. Then, on Monday night I had a work event in the evening, so he was at school in the morning, came home for a nap, and I was gone by the time he woke up.

All this to say that from Friday through Monday, I was kind of missing in action. And Amado, while very happy to have some one-on-one Papi time, was growing a little tired of the situation.

The reason that I know this is because he generally sleeps through the night with a couple quick wake ups. But on Monday night, he wakes up, sees me, and figures, "She's here, I better get my play time in now". So we bring him to bed for what we assume will be a quick-put-back-to-bed as is customary these days and instead we find ourselves in romper room.

I wont detail the whole repertoire of antics, but highlight a couple. My sister bought Amado a book for Christmas thats called something like "Peace Day", and it talks about how all around the world, kids say peace in different languages but they all want to be safe, go to school, share food with their families, etc. Its a really nice, positive book. And each page has something like "Carlos lives in Mexico. Carlos says "paz"". You get the picture.

So here we are, 4 in the morning, and Amado decides to whip out his mulilingual peace knowledge. He sits up, and says "Peace. Paz. Paix. Peace. Paz. Paix. Peace. Paz. Paix". Good lord. I mean in general, you really congratulate ssomething like that - I dont even know what that last language is. But its 4 in the morning.

So I say to him, in my most ernest and cautionary voice, "Amado, you are going to play in the morning with Rory and Lumina. You need to sleep now because if not, you will be too tired to play.". He didn't heed my warning. Instead, I put two fun names of two fun people out there in the mix and he decides to make up a song. Doing his arm-movements that signify music (some of you know exactly what i am talking about), he yells "Rory! Rory! Ro-o-ry!" "Luna, Luna, Lu-u-na!"

Wow.

And yes, he finally fell asleep. About a half-hour before I had to get up. It didnt make sense to go back to sleep so I spooned his little warm body, buried my nose in his hair, and felt sad about what it will be like when he is too old for this insanity.

animal sounds

Amado has been doing animal sounds for a few months now.
You say "como habla la vaca?" and he says "moooo".
"Como habla el gallo?" "kikirikiri!"
"Como habla el gato?" "eoooww!" (yeah, he leaves off the "m", we are not sure why)

So, you all know that "cafe" (and then the mysterious "whafe") was one of the earlier words in Amado's repertoire, no doubt based on the massive amount that we drink. Well, we recently bought a used espresso maker off of Berkeley Parents Network (yes!!!) and our consumption has now tripled. And he has a new animal sound.
"Como habla el whafe?" says his papi.
And yes, my toddler son says "schweeoohschweeschwee", imitating the sound of the espresso maker.

Learn how to mop, kid

So today, Jason and I were standing in the kitchen. Amado (one and a half years old) comes in and says "sucio". Sometimes he is just using his words for no particualr reason, just to say them, so we figured this was what was happening. Joking, I ask him "whats sucio? tu papi?". He shakes his head and says "piso".
My one and a hald year old kid is telling us that our housekeeping is not up to his standards. What a guy.