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!!