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!!

I You!

My precious little meatloaf has said I love you ("I You") for the first time! Ironically, he said it in English, the language we use the least to express our loving emotions to him, but probably the easiest for him to express this feeling. It is endearing to have such an affectionate son - he'll hold our heads and rub his nose against ours (and all those he loves, by the way!), caress us, pat our backs when he hugs us, etc. He even likes to give other toddlers at the park hugs and kisses and dogs and cats as well!! With all the changes toddlers go through, I hope this aspect doesn't go away anytime soon!

Mati is becoming quite a funny little man - funny from an adult point of view. For about a week now, he has been wanting to use his jackets at all times of the day, despite the weather conditions outside. The other day we went to the park and it was a fairly warm day, however, he wanted his jacket on. He started to play and despite sweat beads accumulating on top of his nose and his hair getting wet from the perspiration, he still didn't want to take his jacket off! My negotiation skills will certainly improve if he continues with this fashion trend!!

His appreciation of music has taken off. He'll ask for more of a genre of music or to hear a song again. But the cutest is to see him dance. He usually just turns and turns in circles, but lately has started to move his upper body and stompt his feet to the beat of the music.

Another new activity he is into is that of collecting: pebbles, leaves, acorns, anything on the floor that catches his eye. He'll put them in his pant or short pockets and then play with them at home, in the car or in his stroller. Such a boy!!

We enrolled him in a new class which has a classroom feel to it. Teacher Rosie leads about 7 or 8 toddlers in singing their ABCs, doing art activities, dancing, running, exploring nature or doing sports. Mati liked the class, especially as he is beginning to like hanging out with other kids, and was attentive to all of Teacher Rosie's explanations. We think his English will improve tremendously from this - he's already asking to sing the "ABCD" song! - which will be great for when he starts preschool next year.

Finally, a BIG THANK YOU to all the family members who have helped us taking care of Mati during my recovery. Mati has loved spending time with all of you and I'm very grateful for the help!

Oh Yeah!!

Mati has officially started to "speak" in English. His vocabulary is pretty limited but he loves to say "Yeah" and "No". We are slowly teaching him more words and encouraging him to embrace this third language, which he is doing very well. We are impressed by his ability to recognize the different languages he is exposed to. As soon as he hears Nico and I speaking in English, he'll start saying "Yeah", when he talks to Nico he'll switch to French and to Spanish when he talks to me. It is certainly wonderful to be young and have a brain that absorbs and processes EVERYTHING!

Mati continues his soccer classes and loves them! We are hoping to get some video of him playing and upload it on the blog, hopefully we'll come around to this next week!! He has also developed a love for toy vacuum cleaners (he is still a bit scared of the real one!). My mom made him VERY happy by getting him one and he goes around the house vacuuming here and there.

First Sentence

Mateo uttered his first sentence yesterday (Saturday, August 4): "Brandon mano vamonos." Translation: "Brandon, give me your hand and lets go."

We (Nico, Mercy, Brandon, Mati and I) were in our bedroom when Mati decided he wanted to go elsewhere and asked Brandon for his hand. Mateo took him to play with his train set.

Changes

Changes, changes and more changes - this has well characterized these past several weeks!

The first one was transfering Mateo to a toddler bed. Because his crib has been his comfort and haven, a type of zen sanctuary for so many months, I thought he was going to have a hard time giving up the security of his rails and bumper. Contrary to my belief, he adjusted well to the change and hasn't fallen out of the bed ... yet! We installed a bed rail just in case and put cushions on the floor, along the side of the bed, just in case he decides to get wild at night.

The second change has been harder for Mateo to get used to - my knee operation. Unfortunately, this has radically changed the whole family dynamics - I can't carry my little guy or play with him, take him to the park or do much of anything with him. When he first saw me with my crutches, I saw him coming towards me with the intention of hitting me. He then wanted only to be with me, in my arms, and cried when either my mom or Nico would take him away. But he has slowly started accepting the situation.

This leads me to the third change: the different care givers Mateo will have in the next 6 weeks! My mom took the first week, and probably the hardest one, since everything was so new to Mati (and me!). Not only did he have to deal with my knee surgery, but also with the Roseola virus, which made him break out in fever for three days and an itchy rash for another 3. He was without appetite and super sensitive. Luckily, his system supressed the virus and his happy self quickly returned. Eventually, he got used to mom taking him around town and would bravely say goodbye to me when they left home, but after an hour, an hour and a half, he would ask her to take him back home to see me. Unfortunately, his aggressivity has returned - he has been hitting other kids and my mom and his tantrums have escalated in frequency. I'm hoping that it's all a result of how the knee surgery has changed our daily lives.

Nico is taking the second week, which will be reassuring to Mateo but might upset him when he realizes the third week that he has a couple people taking care of him - my sister, who he absolutely loves, and a nanny whom he's never met! The fourth and fifth week, Nico's parents will be here to help us out, so at least Mateo will be back with family.

In other news - Mateo has started soccer classes. It is so darn adorable to see little 18 - 24 months old toddlers in uniform pretend they are playing soccer. The coach makes them run a lot - they do various drills of stop and go and shoot the ball into the goalie. They stay active the whole 45 minutes!

We are not making much progress in the potty training department. We have stalled and there's not much I can do now to make things move forward. I'll just wait until I'm back to normal and in full charge again!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!