Mateo & Gymbo

A recent clip from earlier this month.

Mateo meets Bladium Bunny

Yeah for Mami and Papi!!! We finally figured out how to load up our videos!! We have so many, it's hard to choose, but I think this one is so endearing, gentle and innocent that I had to share it - a child's love is a wonderful thing! ENJOY! (This video dates from August 25, 2007.)

Mr. Inquirer

Mateo started off this week displaying huge amounts of curiosity as he bombards us with questions, questions and more questions in ALL three languages! He points his index finger at something, asks "What's that?" and then repeats what we say.

M: "What's that?"
P: "This is a sweater."
M: "Sueder, yeah ... Mami cold."

And so this type of exchange goes on all day long! Strangers are also victims to Mateo's curiosity about the world around him. We were at the checkout stand at the grocery store and Mati had a gallon of milk right next to him. A really nice man was behind us and while I was loading the groceries into my cart (saving the Earth, one bag at a time!!), Mateo started asking him, "What's that?" as he pointed to the cap of the milk jug. The man was a real sport and answered ALL of Mati's pressing questions.

His desire to talk is more intense nowadays - he is making more and more 3 word sentences. He not only talks to me and Nico, but also to his stuffed animals. He'll carry out simple conversations with them, tells them what they need to do (i.e. pick-up) or what he'll do (i.e. a soup). He is also singing more when he's alone, especially the "ABCD" song. This afternoon, after I put him down for his nap, he sang it to himself, which is absolutely adorable since he doesn't know all the letters, and when he finished, he congratulated himself with a "BRAVO" and clapping!

Nico and Mati had a hilarious conversation the other day in the bath. I guess the topic was spurred by Mateo's ice cream truck, which happened to be in the bathroom.

M: "Ice cream. Mamounette."
N: "You have ice cream with Mamounette?"
M: "Yeah."
N: "Yes, you ate a lot of ice cream with Mamounette. Do you eat ice cream with Mami?"
M: "Noooo. Tia."
N: "You eat ice cream with Tia?"
M: "Yes!"
N: "What do you eat with Mami?"
M: "Soup."

Finally, Mateo really likes the mechanics of opening and closing doors! He'll just swing them back and forth and try to turn the knobs. Despite having a child-proof home, he managed to lock himself in the bathroom the other day and started screaming frantically. Obviously, the scare didn't teach him not to play with doors!!




Meeting Clifford the Dog at the Bay Area Children's Museum

His new way of eating raspberries.

Mateo's First Sleep Over

What would you know? He's not even two and Mateo had his first sleep over on Saturday! Mati apparently had some fun times with his Tio "BRAAANDONNNN" and his "Tiiia". Well, of course, they had him all happy eating ice cream and people watching ... who wouldn't be happy? He put up no fuzz when they gave him his bath or put him to sleep in the Porta Crib (which is getting too small for him), much to my relief! In the meantime, Nico and I went to the Mana concert ... talk about transporting myself back to my high school years! I nearly forgot I had had knee surgery 2 months earlier and did some baby jumping! We had a great night ... that type of fun had been almost forgotten! It was also refreshing to wake up without hearing "MAMAAAAAA", but it was much to weird to go to bed seeing his bedroom doors open and the little guy not in his bed :(

In other news - Mateo is going through an "internal-conflict" stage. Here's what it sounds like:
M: "Eat no"
P: "Are you done eating?"
M: "Eat no"
P: "Okay, I'll take your plate."
M: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Eat YES!!!!!!!!!!"
P: "Oh, you want to eat?"
M: "Eat no"

or

P: "Mati, do you want to go to the park?"
M: "Park no"
P: "Okay, so then what do you want to do?"
M: "Park"

Needless to say, this deciphering game gives me headaches!!!

But, I'm really proud of him as he continues to make leaps in his language development. The other night he was saying what to me sounded like "No vo". He said it again and again and I told him I didn't understand. His face became serious and I could tell he was processing some information in his mind. He finally said in Spanish: "Pared, no" - he had translated what he had been saying ("No wall") in English (as in, I can't touch the wall with dirty hands!)! He is translating between languages more and more to communicate his point across when we don't understand him.

I am also amazed at his memory! What is it with little kids? Why can't I have his memory skills???? I'll be reading a book that we hadn't read in a while and he'll fill in the last word of most sentences. Similarly, with songs!

Finally, the pictures above are from my birthday dinner, which my family hosted for me. It was great to spend it all together - this was the first time in 16 years!!