Me at 15 months

Today I am 15 months old! I don't mean to boast, of course (do I ever?), but I'm pretty proud of my accomplishments. My mom has been writing things down in a book, once-in-a-while-if-she-remembers-sort of-maybe, but in this day and age, everything that's important is digital, is it not? I told her to get with it and let ME do the list - on my blog. I mean, I'm already behind the times because I don't use Twitter, right? (I would, but my mom doesn't let me. She says it's silly. My dad doesn't know what it is and doesn't care.) So here's a digital list of my accomplishments, big and (mostly) small.

I weigh 10.8 kg and am 78.5cm tall. I have 8 teeth and hardly any hair. I can:

• Say in English: Mom, Daddy, dog, muh (milk.) I also answer "Eissh" when asked "What's your name?"

• Say in Portuguese: Mamãe (mommy), bow wow (not sure how it's spelled - maybe bau uau - for dog), a (for água - water), dá (give), and something that sounds like "desce" (down.) Answer "Cadê o dodoi?" (Where's the owie?) by saying "ay" and pointing to the place that hurts.
  

• Say the names of some of my friends and neighbours - Jessa (Jessica), Chagõ (Tiago), Deiss (Deise), Tata (Carla) and Chi (Tia - auntie - for my babysitter Sandra.)

• Point to my head, nose, mouth, foot, hand, and belly button when asked in English or Portuguese.

• Follow simple instructions in both Portuguese and English. Here are some that I have mastered in both languages:

Give Mommy/Daddy the ......
Come here.
Go get your car/ball/book/diaper.
Go to Daddy.
Put it in the garbage.
Brush your hair. (Yeah, yeah, I know I don't actually have any hair!)
Sit down (although I understand, I usually don't obey!)
Kiss the baby (kiss myself in the mirror!)
Kick (the ball)
Dance

Two words that I only know in Portuguese are "gira" (to which I spin wildly in circles - I haven't learned the word "spin" yet!) and "carinho" (to which I gently touch - or hit - a person or animal.)

• Charm people by showing off that I understand both languages - they can say any of the words below, and I do the appropriate action!

Blink or piscadinha
Kiss or beijo
Hug or abraço
Tchau or bye bye

• Fill in the missing "da" if you say "Você é minha vi...." or "Elis is from Cana....." OK, OK, so I don't actually know what I'm saying, but that's beside the point. My neighbour Carla taught me that trick, and everybody loves it!

• Use hand signs for "hungry," "milk," "doggy," "bath" and "all done" and shake my head to disagree.

And of course it's not all about language skills. No, I am multi-talented, you see. I can pee and poop in my potty (not all the time, of course - but at least a couple of times per day. I like to think of it as doing my bit for the environment - fewer laundry loads of cloth diapers and hardly a disposable diaper in sight these days, except for at night. My dad works for the municipal garbage department and the local landfill is within months of being completely full - what's a concerned baby to do?) I can nurse lying down, sitting, and even standing up! I just learned how to walk backwards, and these days I love climbing up on things (and into things, like closets.) And I love to dance, of course - I clap, tap my toes, stamp my feet and bounce to everything from reggae to samba to folky Yukon tunes. I can manage to very messily ingest a bowl of food on my own, although the spoon is more for decoration than for use - what's the point, really, when you can get your hands messy? I do scribble, but the crayon is more likely to end up in my mouth than on the paper. I am particularly fond of pressing buttons - from turning on the TV at the neighbours' house to taking photos to flushing the toilet. And I just discovered how to blow bubbles in the bathtub - my mom thinks it looks kind of dangerous and watches me like a hawk, but I think it's just plain fun! I try to be helpful, sometimes - recently I dumped my water all over the floor, and then - without anyone telling me to - found a cloth and began to wipe it up. That was an isolated incident, though - usually I just make huge messes. Emptying drawers, grabbing CDs and other reachable objects and throwing them on the floor - and if anyone tries to stop me, I let them have it. Ah, yes, I can't wait for the terrible twos...

Well, that was the most photo-free post I have ever done. I will work on getting some photo and video evidence for all these grand claims. In the meantime, please encourage me by leaving comments - I might even get those pictures up faster if you do! But for now, I've got some sleeping, growing, and learning to attend to!