Merry Christmas

vocabulary update

I realize I haven't updated the baby blog with Benjamin's new words since he hit 200. It's not that he stopped there. I've just failed to keep you up to date. Let's correct that now:

201. Kayla (Miss Angel's daughter and Benjamin's regular babysitter)
202. caillou (pebble)
203. plus (more)
204. jean (blue jeans)
205. jazz (we think he uses this word for all instrumental music)
206. Bach (we think he uses this name for all organ music)
207. oiseau (bird)
208. two
209. miettes (crumbs)
210. chanson (song)
211. ceinture (belt)
212. Mickey (Mouse)
213. autre (other; Benjamin uses it to mean un autre, "another.")
214. video
215. queue (tail)
216. yeah
217. coffee
218. tree (pointing to a Chritmas tree)
219. lapin (rabbit)
220. autruche (ostrich)
221. moose
222. voir (see)
223. morceau (piece)
224. pouce (thumb)
225. araignée (spider, pronounced "ahnyay")
226. boots
227. cow (the one that jumped over the moon)
228. hair
229. blocks
230. bowl (as in "bowl full of mush" from Goodnight Moon)
231. mush (as in "bowl full of mush" from Goodnight Moon)
232. couteau (knife)
233. stylo (pen, pronounced "eelo")
234. girl (usually referring to Monster Girl)
235. montre (watch)

(I do keep the main list up to date.)

- papa

Grandma's iPod

new winter coat

longest protosentence yet

Benjamin has recently grown extremely attached to his baby doll, Louis. Nathalie began putting Benjamin's own newborn clothes on Louis, and it seems to have inspired Benjamin to start treating Louis as his baby. He carries him around against his shoulder, pats Louis on the back, and gives him kisses. Tonight Benjamin pointed to Louis lying on the living room floor and said,

Bébé dodo par terre.

(The baby is sleeping on the floor.)

We were pretty impressed.

- papa

Benjamin with computer

Here's Benjamin in South Carolina with his new computer:

200

I strongly suspected that Benjamin's vocabulary would hit the 200 mark today, but what would the 200th word be? Earlier this evening he was misbehaving, hitting a flashlight against the floor and ignoring his mother as she told him to stop. At this point, she usually warns him that he'll get a timeout if he doesn't stop, and then she gives him a three count: un, deux, trois ...

But tonight the exchange went like this:

Nathalie: Tu veux un timeout? Un ...

Benjamin: Two three!

Two three? Where did he get that from?!

We'll have to investigate, but meanwhile I'm wondering, Was that his 200th word? "Two three"? Nathalie says no, it's not clear that he knows what those words mean.

Then I hear them discussing dinner. Nathalie is saying that they'll have pork for dinner and Benjamin is insisting that they should have popcorn instead. Nathalie stands firm on the no-popcorn-for-dinner decision and elaborates on the pork by telling him it's mu shu.

Mu shu! Mu shu! Mu shu! — he won't stop saying it.

So is his 200th word "mu shu"? No, he just seemed to be enjoying repeating it. When I showed him a bowl full of mu shu pork later this evening and asked him what it was, he couldn't identify it for me.

But what he did do during dinner was ask his mother for a cuillère (spoon).

So our boy knew the word "chopstick" before he knew "fork" (or baguette and fourchette, in this case) but his 200th word is not Chinese for delicious shredded pork in brown sauce, but French for spoon.

182. concombre (cucumber)
183. salad (pronounced "sasa")
184. baguettes (chopsticks, pronounced "bagack")
185. Gumby
186. pomme (apple)
187. hurt
188. ours (bear)
189. gâteau (cake)
190. marteau (hammer)
191. hammer
192. fourchette (fork)
193. again
194. dessin (drawing)
195. mitten
196. crème (cream)
197. crayon (the English word, not the French word for pencil)
198. BC (meaning the alphabet song, as in "mo' BC!")
199. narine (nostril; he has a cold, 1-Dec-07)
200. cuillère (spoon)

- papa

PS I'd like to add to Papa's post that it is not clear to me that Benjamin knew the word for "chopstick" before he knew the word for "fork." He simply used it first. He demonstrates every day that he knows lots of words he can't say yet. For example, tonight I asked him where his papa's "barbe" (beard) was, and he touched his father's beard and I thought I heard him say "beard" (Brian, however, didn't hear it, so I might have been hearing things). Brian was undressing him for his bath this evening and asked him what was next, and Benjamin told him "couche" (diaper), clearly understanding the word "next." I'll ask him to put something on the sofa (or ask him not to draw on the sofa...) and he'll do it (meaning he'll put the thing on the sofa—or draw on the sofa again, but that's material for another post). And yet he never uses the word "sofa."

-maman

identification and solidarity

I found this lost image from almost a year ago, Benjamin leading the moose uprising:


His animal loyalties have moved on since then, as evidenced last Halloween.

Here's something his mother said the other day. She had scattered some finger foods on the table of his high chair, and he was trying to lower his mouth to them to eat them that way. His mother said,

Qu'est-ce que tu fais?	[ What are you doing? ]
Tu n'es pas un petit chien;	[ You're not a little dog; ]
tu n'es pas un petit chat;	[ You're not a little cat; ]
tu es un petit singe:	[ You're a little monkey: ]
mange avec tes mains!	[ eat with your hands! ]

- papa

songs for the holidays

Benjamin has begun "singing" — though he doesn't quite know any lyrics. He's babbling musically. But it isn't just babble; it sounds shockingly close sometimes to the words of the songs we sing him regularly, and shockingly close to the tunes, as well.

Last night, during an early and extended bedtime ritual, Benjamin began to sing what sounded very much like the words and music to "La Ronde des Légumes."

Today, during his lunch, Benjamin started doing the same thing with the alphabet song. (We have 2 versions: the standard English version to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," and a French version to the tune of "Frère Jacques" that his Mamie made up when she was a French teacher.)

Jumping on the opportunity to reinforce the actual alphabet, I joined in, but when I'd sing, he'd stop singing and focus hard on what I was saying. When I'd finish singing, he'd sometimes give it a try himself, sometimes say "mo' BC!"

Apparently "BC" is Benjamin's new word for "the ABCs."

"Mo' BC" means, "Please sing the alphabet song some more."

- papa

PS As I write this, Benjamin is in his crib for his afternoon nap. I can hear him telling himself some musical jokes, which are apparently very funny.

PPS Nathalie wants me to add that at lunch we were singing and laughing together and that she thinks he's replaying that memory to himself as he falls asleep.