Well, El Guapo’s walking. He was taking a few steps at a time about a month ago, and about two weeks later he started just toddling around the house. He still is unsteady enough that an object on the floor or a sudden change in the texture or height of the floor (moving onto or off of a rug, for instance) often causes him to fall. But he gets around, and he’s happy about it.
He’s also trying to talk more, which is going rather weirdly. First of all, he calls me Dada. He also calls Jon Boy Dada. We have this conversation about ten times a day:
El Guapo, patting my chest affectionately: “Dada!”
Me: “No! Mama.”
El Guapo, patting again: “Dada!”
Me: “No! I’m Mama. Say Ma. Ma. Ma.”
El Guapo: “Dada!”
He smiles so pluckily its as if he thinks that his thick mother might eventually figure out that her name is Dada and that he’s right. Last night we did get him to say “Nah-Nah” (like Mama, but with N’s) once, so maybe he just can’t. I don’t know.
Then, once in a while, he’ll say a word he’s never said before, once, almost perfectly. Like “book” or “cheese” or “thank you.” Then he won’t repeat it. Ever. Instead, he just says “light” a million times a day.
Duplo is becoming more interested in reading and is figuring out more and more words. He’s in that stage where he’ll decode a single word on a sign or a book and ask why it’s there. He spends hours a day playing with wooden blocks and is super interested in how things are put together and what the functions of different pieces of machinery are.
Lego just started first grade and is doing fine. He actually seems to come home cranky more often than not, but he claims to love school, so maybe he’s just tired after a long day of working hard. He also learned to ride his bike without training wheels this weekend. I really can’t say who’s prouder of him, us or him. We’ve been working with him on it all summer, but we weren’t even outside when he figured it out. He was out with his cousins and tried a smaller bike, and when he learned how to ride that, he tried his own and did just fine.
So yeah, we’re doing great and learning all the time. Never a dull moment at our house, let me tell you.
