tszee! da? tah. awesome, kid! ...but where's "Ma-Ma"?

Jaxon is not a man of few words. in fact, i believe at some point he is going to have so much to say there isn't going to be time enough in the day to get it all out. the kid loves to talk...what can i say? look at who his mother is.

i love to hear all his babbling, because, like any good parent, i can make sense out of a lot of it...or at least pretend to. or maybe i just delude myself into believing it all actually means what i think it means. either way, it's pretty freaking cool.

as previously mentioned in a past post, he says the name of our cat, Cheetara. well, he actually calls her "Chee"...though in truth, whereas before it was kind of a very breathy "Khee", now it sounds more like "Tszee". the minute he sees her, he gets super excited, reaches towards her (no matter how far away she is) and says, "Tszee!!" that's pretty awesome. the fact that he learned her name so early and has continually been refining the sound that he uses for her name. guess he's gonna be an animal-lover. that makes me happy.

recently, he has starting pointing to things and saying, "Da?" (it's a very short 'a' sound)...didn't take long for us to figure out he was asking, "What's that?" how amazing and cute is that?!?

so of course, we humor him and tell him the names of things. it's like he has figured out that everything has a name and he wants to call them their correct names--at least as correct as he can get it. it cracks me up (and in some ways slightly annoys me because of the constant repetition...sad, but true). he just wants to learn and i think that's a great skill to have in this world. curiosity. way to go, my boy. way to go.

one of the recent additions to his vocabulary is the word, "tah".  isn't that awesome?!?! not sure what it's supposed to mean?

here's how the acquisition of this new word happened---or at least a similar re-enactment:

 Jax: (pointing to the fan) Da?
Daddy: fan. fan.
Jax: Fa (he tends to leave off the 'n')
Daddy: good! that's the fan!
Jax (pointing to a metal star hanging from the ceiling) da?
Daddy: star. that's a star.
Jax: Tah.
Daddy: (slightly incredulously...and pretty damn proud, i would think) yes...that's right! it's a star!

now, i know, i know...this could easily have been a fluke. but i showed him some other stars we had around our house, told him they were stars, and there was that word, "Tah" again. and now, you can ask him where the star is and he will look at it and continues to use the word. awesome. my baby is freakin cool.  i am so happy that he is learning all of these cool words and that he wants to learn them.

and yes, i repeat things to him over and over again to get him to hear the sounds and make his own attempt at them. you know, like: "Ma-Ma. Ma-Ma. Ma-Ma. Ma-Ma. Ma-Ma. Ma-Ma." over and over again. but, alas...unless he's in his crib screaming and crying for me to come in there and pick him up, i do NOT hear Ma-Ma.or even a really close approximation of it. and that makes me kinda sad. i mean he says the cat's name...what about me?

this is how it usually goes:

me: Ma-Ma. Ma-Ma.
Jax: Da-Da!
me: no, silly... Ma-Ma. Ma-Ma.
Jax:  Da-Da-Da-Dee!
(well, at least he's got the number of syllables right...right?)
me: Ma-Ma. Ma-Ma. that's MY name. i'm not Da-Da.
Jax: Da-Da-Da-Dee!! (as he giggles and acts all cute and flirty)

so, of course, after this exchange multiple times, i'm thinking this kid is playin me. he KNOWS who "Da-Da" is and he knows who "Ma-Ma" is... if you ask him, "Where's Mommy?" he looks around until he sees me and then he gets all excited. when he hears the jingling of his daddy's keys, he looks around and says "Da-Da-Da-Dee!" or something similar. so it's not like he doesn't know. he does. he just doesn't say it. even when his daddy points to me and says, "Who's that?" Jax will either smile, turn and bury his head into his daddy's shoulder, or he'll look at something else and call that by it's name. ugh. maybe he just can't say it yet?

really, though? i have heard and seen him make the 'm' sound...so i know the capability is there. he's trying all sorts of other, more difficult sounds. but not my name. this is me when he says the name of something or someone else instead of mine: sadface.

i know it'll come. but it might be after he finally gets Chee's name right. or maybe after he says "TV"--yeah, how much would that suck? but it'll come. eventually. and then, i'm going to hear it for ev-er-y-thing. and it's gonna be yelled at me, whined to me, cried to me, and exclaimed to me. and then, i'm going to have to remind myself of how much i wanted to hear it back when he was 10 months old. 

and i'm going to love it.

It's "amole"!

el Jedi (one of the slew of nicknames we call our lil man) is becoming quite the connoisseur of solid foods these days. and with that comes a serving of finicky with a side of attitude.

how is a new mom to make sure her bouncing baby boy gets the right nutrients he needs when he outright refuses to eat certain foods? it's called a little creativity in the kitchen (though i'm sure some would call it trickery or the like).

first, you gotta to know what the man likes. what would that be,  you ask? bananas, sweet potato, and avocado.  all good stuff in my book. and how do i know he prefers these? well, it could be the fact that at 9 1/2 months old he outright asks for banana ("nananana!")--cute, i know. and when he eats the others he makes the "mmmm-mmmm" sound as he eats. oh, and he bangs on the tray for more.

second, you've gotta figure out what he doesn't like--that's not hard to tell at all...just wait for the nose wrinkle of disgust...and then the food so lovingly prepared and delicately spooned into his mouth will come sliding back out and down the chin onto the bib. lovely. 

third, you've gotta try to figure out what combinations of "yummy", acceptable food will work to hide the "yucky" completely detestable food. oh...and you've gotta be willing to try it yourself. just in case.

the only problem is that the intolerable food list far outweighs the acceptable food list. and, out of the 3 yummy foods, there's really only one that seems to be great as a "hide-all" mix-in.  that's avocado. i mean, am i wrong or does the idea of banana and broccoli just sound too appalling? guacamole to the rescue. well, really just the avocado.

• 1st up to the plate was broccoli. it definitely did NOT pass the Jax test. honestly, my first thought was, "Great. I made all that broccoli. What the hell am I going to do with it now? There's no way I'm eating pureed broccoli!" (don't you love the irony, here?)
• introducing broccomole! he eats it every time. well, most times. as long as the taste of broccoli is appropriately masked by the avocado. i'd say the mixture's about 1/2 and 1/2.  

• 2nd up to bat, carrot. i was really hoping the little bug would like carrot. i mean, i LOVE carrot. seriously. it's one of my all time favs (i know--it's a vegetable, not a song or a band or anything). but, alas...it was not meant to be.
• carrotamole... i'm still not sold on the name, though.  this one was a little tougher to get past the lil man. i honestly can't see that the taste of carrot is stronger than that of broccoli. i really think the problem was the texture. so this one had to be mixed REALLY well. in fact, it seems it would better just to puree the two together than to mix it in later. it's still about 1/2 carrot and 1/2 avocado--though sometimes it's more like 3/4 avocado. what can i say? he's become a bit picky lately.

• 3rd, zucchini. i had already figured out the summer squash was not to the Jedi's taste and had mixed that in with sweet potato to much success. but i didn't think zucchini would work the same way. maybe it was the coloring. i don't know. 
• zucchinamole was born. it's definitely not his favorite, and i use it pretty sparingly. i'm lucky if i can get him to eat the whole serving. but, that's more than he ate when it was just zucchini.

• 4th, kale. oh kale, you are a tricky one...even for me. i find the taste of raw kale to be very bitter. and the taste of cooked kale? well, it's still a little bitter (all greens are, really...to me at least) but it's not as bad. of course, i like mine with a little soy sauce, onions, garlic and maybe some red pepper and sesame seeds. hey, they're good for you, right? but Jax can't eat all that stuff yet, so he gets his plain.
• kaleamole.  it's 1/2 and 1/2 on this one too. i honestly didn't even start with the kale plain and by itself. i just knew i was gonna have to "amole" it up. he seems to kinda dig this mixture. i tried it myself and i kind of like it to. might have to start eating my own kale this way. maybe.

• 5th? i'm not sure yet. we tried beets today. from the moment it hit his tongue, i knew they were a resounding "No". it was the trifecta. i got the infamous nose wrinkle and he gagged. and then it came dribbling down the chin. great. somehow, though i just don't think "beetamole" is going to become my next culinary creation.  maybe sweet beets or beet potato. or beetanana?

i don't know. i'll get back to you.