Happy 20 Months!

Happy 20 months to Mateito!!!

What a little boy he's becoming! I've enjoyed all stages of his life, but I have a feeling the best ones are just around the corner. As he talks more and more and as the world makes more sense to him, we are bound to have funny anectodes to share! For example ...

At the airport in Paris, we rode a bus to the plane. But before the bus took off, we waited for about 20 minutes for other passengers to get on from other flights. To kill time, I was showing Mati the different Air France buses and reading to him where they were headed to - one went to Oujda (Morocco), another one to Beijing ... For some reason, Beijing stayed impermeated in his mind. The next day when we were home, eating dinner, he told me, "Vamonos!" (Let's go!). I asked him where he wanted to go. He answered: "Pekin, otobu" (translation: Beijing by bus). I told him we couldn't physically go to Beijing but that we could travel there by looking at pictures. Nico got home right at that moment and I asked him to show him some of our China picture books. So they both sat down and started looking at the images. Mateo knows Mao from our communist posters at home, but Nico pointed him out over and over again in the pictures. They also saw pictures of people on bicycles, of babies, of the Great Wall, of the country side, etc. The next day at a playcenter, Mateo is engrossed playing with little cars on the floor, when he makes a turn and sees a Chinese-American man sitting on a bench. He turns to me and with the biggest excitment you can imagine, says, "Mao! Mao!" as he points to the man. I started laughing but quickly told him that the man wasn't Mao - although they shared some physical traits. He differed in opinion and continued to say "Mao!!".

Mateo is also proud of knowing the colors and some letters. As we walk around town, he loves to point out the color of the cars, flowers and trees he sees! On Sunday we were walking home from having dinner and passed by McDonald's. Mateo was very excited not only to have recognized the arched "M" but also that it was "ru" (rouge - red).

Which brings me to my next point - he obviously mixes all three languages like a nice stew, but I've noticed that he is slowly starting to put words together. His favorite is "Mati, no" as he touches the blinds or anything else he's not supposed to, or "Te mama" as he brings me a cup for my tea.

He is starting to play more games of pretend, like cooking. I'll ask him to make me a tea and he gets a cup, grabs a spoon, mixes the contents and hands it to me (empty, of course). What is super endearing is watching him feed his stuffed animals, his cars, anything he loves ...

I think Mateo is more interested in other children now and constantly reaches out to them. He tries to hug and kiss them, although he is still far from playing with them and is entering the "mine" stage. His aggressiveness has subsided for the moment, so that's a relief, especially as he reaches out to other toddlers (I am still on high alert, though ... you never know!)

As to the pictures: My sister came back from Chicago with a whole baseball kit for Mati: a bat, ball and cap! Here he is practicing his batting ... and seeing if he can balance the bat with his mouth! Interesting enough, my sister taught him that when he plays baseball he has to wear the cap and actually keeps it on the whole time he plays!