larryhammer | "wake up every day, that would be a start / i would not complain of my wounded heart"

TBD is 2 years old today. What a quick eight long months it's been.

Lots of growth lately, and not just physical. TBD is starting to try putting words together, with more or less comprehensible success. "Noun1 noun2" to indicate an association between the two was the first pattern, but there's been recent uses of "big" as a descriptor -- there's a "cactus" here and then there's a "big cactus" over there (saguaros, mostly, but also some of the larger, more rambly prickly pears). Also used: "no more," as in the milk/juice is all gone, and "bigger," as in requesting the bigger cup to drink from. Which requires even closer supervision than a small cup, and thus more frustration as the desire to do everything By Myself kicks in harder, but both impulses are good.

Some words can be hard to distinguish if TBD is not being careful: "Daddy," "jacket," and "cactus," for example -- and "puddle," "bubble," "Pablo" (the neighbor's dog), and "turtle" (our newest obsession, thanks to meeting some rescue desert tortoises at the house of the toddler down the block). Thus our misunderstanding for a while that Grampa was not being called Papa but rather Ba-ba (Mandarin for "Daddy"), as Gramma is always Ma-ma ("Mommy"). Some pronunciation shifts are predictable: a trailing -s is always dropped, so mau for "mouse."

Cleaning up is important -- including sing-song intoning "Clean up" using roughly the tune of the clean-up song at daycare. TBD is apparently often the only child in the one-year-old room who helps out with putting things away.

And finally, one especially good moment -- as we're watch Pablo over the wall, who howls a couple times, then goes over to the door:

Me: I think he wants to be let in.
TBD: *shakes head*
Me: You don't think so?
TBD: *shakes head*
Me: What does he want?
TBD: *hugs me*

---L.

Subject quote from "Regret," New Order.