growing baby

Yesterday, Mateo referred to Ilya as papa!!!!!!  In the morning, Mateo pointed Ilya out to me and whispered “papa”; then later in the afternoon, he was talking to abue and referred to Ilya as papa (again in a whisper).  So far he hasn’t called Ilya “papa” directly–I think he’s trying to keep his paternity a secret from Ilya, hee hee.  Or, he has a hard time transitioning from the unvoiced “p” to the voiced “a”–that’s Ilya’s theory.  (Try singing a sustained “p” sound versus an “a” sound to see the difference between unvoiced and voiced sounds.)

Mateo also is starting to say “noodle” (to mean pasta in general).  Sometimes it comes out noo-duh, but sometimes he says noo-noo.

Also, Mateo’s been hanging out a lot with Eloise (our neighbor’s daughter who’s three months older than Mateo).  The other day, he went to her front door and made the “more” sign (in baby sign language); then yesterday, both Ilya and I swear we heard Eloise say “Mateo.”  Yesterday, they traded leaves and twigs, played with bubbles on the patio and drew on the fridge (we have a big piece of paper on the fridge for this purpose). 

Ok, the little man just woke up, so off I go.  This is the first night he’s slept the whole night through in a week.  Hallelujah!