Not a performing monkey

I've been trying to get a video of Wilder talking but it's very difficult - he acts like we're paparazzi if he sees us filming him. Which is a shame as he says lots of very cute things. This is the best I have managed so far:

Also a bonus video of Wilder discovering bubblewrap yesterday

Wilder's Words

Having mastered walking and stair climbing, next up is talking. So far we have:

Ba-bye (Bye Bye, with a wave often, sometimes involves closing the door or waving to the school bus that takes Bluet and Ilona every day)

Bey-ey (Belly, accompanied by patting belly)

Za (Zip, accompanied by a small chuckle when he sees a zip)

Chz (Cheese)

Shz (shoes)

Mama (general purpose I want that/what is that/do something for me word)

Done (said at the end of dinner)

Ba (first word, meaning ball. He will also bring you a ball (with great glee) if you ask him to)

Ed (head)

Am (ham)

Pa-pa (paper)

Bk (book, usually involves presenting/gently hitting you with said book until you read it 3 or 4 times)

Ca (car; if he picks up a toy car he will also make the noise a car makes)

Na-na (banana)

Kacka (cracker, as in the foodstuff)

Abby (Happy, often said several times in a row whilst walking around)

Wilder talking and showing his tongue

Dadadada

First thing every morning, we hear Wilder cry 'mamamama' from his bed. A signal for Emily to come get him. However, occasionally when Emily is not around, he will say 'dadadada' instead. Like last Saturday, when I was watching him by myself.

Mystery Solved

About 6 months ago Ilona asked us for an 'ipe'. After she explained this was to cut something, we realised that she meant a knife, but couldn't work out why she said ipe. Then "ipe" became "ife", but never knife, and the other day I realised why - when we say 'a knife', Ilona thinks we are saying 'an ife'. Anyway, here is Ilona cutting a banana with her ife this morning




And Ilona's very warm pajamas

Pointing at things

Ilona has made a lot of progress recently. Namely she has started to call Emily "Mamamama" and me "Dadn" - the latter is either what all babies say at first, or something she has picked up from Bluet - hopefully the latter. And now if we say "where's Mama?" or "Where's Dadn", Ilona will look, point, smile and approximate the right name. And yesterday, when I asked "where's Bluet" Ilona looked, pointed and said "Da" which may well have been in German.

Similarly when we are out and about Ilona likes to point at things, particularly hedges, buses and the sky. Basically her little pointing finger is sticking out of the buggy and waving around wherever we go.

Unfortunately this is all rather difficult to photograph or film as the camera immediately puts Ilona off. So here are some other recent pictures.

Bluet climbs the 'dinosaur'; imagine Ilona pointing at Bluet

Bluet feeds the ducks; imagine Ilona pointing at the ducks

Bluet digs a hole. Imagine Ilona pointing at Bluet

Bluet at the indoor playground, getting ready to point at something

Emily was away in France last night. Here is Ilona chatting to her over the internet. It's the future

Ilona talking

No idea what she is saying, but I'm sure it is very important

Talking

I realised that we haven't had any recordings of Bluet talking on here recently. It is a shame as we are losing her charming mispronunciations - such as pernana, perjamas, acoucacku etc. I shall have to make a list. Anyway here is some up to date Bluet talk for you:
 

Some odds and ends

Bluet has a new backpack, which she likes very very much

This week we are off to Missouri, so I am sure that there will be plenty of blog material, but it may take a while for it to appear here. In the meantime, here are some odds and ends - a couple of Bluet's songs,and some photos.

Conversation

On passing a person on a bicycle this morning on the way to school:

"Bluet ride a bycle too"

"Does Bluet ride fast?"

"No, Bluet ride slow"

Conversation 1 & 2

And here I try to have a conversation with Bluet about our trips to school. Listen out for her saying 'Barack Obama'

A long weekend

This weekend has been abnormally long and tiring as Emily is at a conference on the tropical island paradise of Hawaii. To entertain Bluet yesterday we walked to the library, where Bluet mostly looked for Maise books. Her favourite was the pop up one in the video below, which was rather cool, but I was loathe to borrow it as I am sure she would quickly destroy the pop ups that had not already been broken by a previous child borrower. In the afternoon we went to the children's museum, and played in the water, and in kidopolis, a corporate sponsored child run fake town where your child can learn to deliver parcels, work in a bank or drive a police car. This morning we went to the Zoo, where Bluet mainly enjoyed pressing buttons, and then this afternoon we hung out and did summersaults and made towers and read books. Finally, Bluet went to bed. Below you will find some photos, some videos, and my attempt to record a conversation with Bluet.

I walked in to Bluet's room, and found her reading her book to her dolly. Unfortunately my appearance distracted her, so I only got 6 second of video. Tonight I put Bluet to bed, and she was very quiet. I went in to check, and she was sitting by her bookshelf with 'owly' in her lap, reading Miffy books. 

Videos for a Friday afteroon

Enjoy Bluet swimming in the water and playing in her room. In the playing video, she can be heard saying 'swimming in the water' and 'taxi', and 'around around' like the wheels on the bus.

Nostalgia

This morning we were watching Sesame Street, and Murray (an orange Muppet) knocked over some carefully arranged blocks. Later on, we went for brunch and Bluet was still talking about Murray knocking over the blocks. Tonight in the bath, I finally managed to catch her reminiscing about this event whilst soaking in the bath. Clearly it was a formative event. It is also the first 'event' Bluet has been able to remember and tell us about later.


In addition, here are some photos from this week, just hanging out and about - you will be able to appreciate the wide variety of trendy outfits she wears to school.

On the balcony, watering plants

And dancing

Exhausted, yesterday she took a 4 hour nap

After which we took her shopping to the apple store

Bluet loves her number mat so much. NB this one she did not wear to school

Now Bluet knows her ABCs

You can sing along at home - she is particularly strong at ABCD and "Double, X, Y, Zed"

And

here is a video of Bluet talking, early one evening last week. It is a long one because these days she has a lot to say

Talking

It is hard t record Bluet talking these days as usually as soon as I get the iphone out to record her, she falls silent, just in case I am about to let her watch Elmo, or something. However, when she does talk, she can say a lot - you will notice that these sound clips are much longer than in the past. Listen out for her saying 'Avocado' (A-Coo-Cac-ou). That is my favourite. She likes to say avocado almost as much as she likes to eat it. She can also now say her own name.

New York Bye Bye

So sadly it is true, we are leaving New York for Houston. In fact, Bluet and Emily left this morning, whilst I am hanging around until the end of the month to get work finished. This means that updates to the blog may be a little sparse this month (although I hope to spend a weekend down there). But never fear, I have assembled a small collection of videos, sounds and pictures from Bluet's farewell to New York tour to post over the next few days. I will begin, however, by describing her progress with letters and numbers. Her favourite letter is B, and why not? When we were in Missouri waiting in the car by a sign that said 'beer and liquor', Bluet looked out the window and said 'I see B'. She can consistently identify the letter B wherever it is written. She is very clever. She can also consistently identify 'P' and 'O', occasionally A,C and D as well, and today she was running around saying 'ABC' as if it were all one word. Her favourite number is 6, and on occasion she can also pick 8 out of a line up. Emily's sister gave Bluet one of those magnetic drawing boards for Christmas. On that we like to draw the letters (or numbers) and tell Bluet what they are. Bluet then erases the number (or letter) and says 'Bye Bye, Six' or 'Six, Bye Bye'. It is very cute.

Advent Day 17

Today's advent treat is a video of Bluet from barely one hour ago. Enjoy

Advent Day 10

Bluet talks a lot. We can't always (usually) understand what she says. See if you can understand these pearls of wisdom