150

While most of Benjamin's words are French, there are certain words he'll only say in English.

Nathalie will tell him, "Dis «au revoir»" [say goodbye], and he'll respond in English: "Bye bye!"

And until today, it was, "Dis «bonjour»" [say hello], and he'd respond "Hi!"

This morning, Benjamin greeted me with a shockingly well-enunciated "Bonjour!"

Then this afternoon, he pointed to the painting he did for my birthday (proudly displayed in the hallway) and instead of saying peinture, as he usually would, he said "Painting!"

The day's only half-over (or, for late risers like me, just getting started) and the boy already has 4 new words:

147. café (coffee)
148. bonjour
149. painting
150. hot

And yes, that does bring him up to 150.

Here's why I think his 150th word will stick: Nathalie brought me a fresh cup of coffee and Benjamin tried to touch it. I took it out of reach, and said, "Hot!"

"Hot?"

"Yes, hot — it will give you a bobo!"

So he slowly put his finger forward, and I let him touch the tip to the cup. He poked it a few times, then touched a few finger tips tentatively. The whole time, I was saying, "See? Hot!"

Then he slowly put both hands forward and held the cup for a moment against his palms. Suddenly he jerked them away and looked betrayed.

"Yes," I said. "Ow! That's hot!"

"Hot," he agreed.

- papa

PS I just reviewed his full vocabulary list, and I see that we've never put this very old word on the list:

151. bobo (French for boo-boo)