new developments

It's hard to contain the excitement of seeing my little baby turn into a boy. Wow!! I just have to write that it's truly amazing. Tonight was the real "biggy" for me. I swear that I heard him say his first word. How it all happened is actually kind of funny-strange (to me at least). Oliver and I were having some low key play time in our air-conditioned bedroom, after I had just given him a cool bath. We were happily playing with his new animal puppets from Tio Paco, when I got out the green Baby Einstein doll, a present from my mom, that plays a "babied-down version" of a mozart piece. As soon as I touched the music botton on the could-be-a-dinasour or-possibly-a-dragon or-even-an-alien or all of the above-doll, Oliver got one of those freaked out blank stare looks and broke out in high pitched cries. That's the third time he's cried with the Baby Einstein toy, so tomorrow, as far as I'm concerned, it's history. The first two times I thought his cries were just hungry or sleepy cries but this time, I'm certain that the weird green doll that that plays babied-down Mozart is NOT to Oliver's liking.

It was amidst Oliver's shrieks, that I headed out our front door to distract Oliver with one of his favorite pasttimes--looking at and if they'll let him, petting the neighbor's cats. The neighbor wasn't home, but the cats were out on the driveway relaxing. But not for long...

Oliver was easily distracted by the cats. When the particular cat we were bothering, went under the car I got down on the ground with Oliver on my lap in view of the cat and asked him, "Cat?" "Where's the cat?" And I am sure that he said...CAT. What a moment for me.


Yep, so that was it. The first word.


It wasn't long, however, that I truly relished that first word. When Jaime got home (actually in the middle of this blog), we talked again about Oliver's first word--I had already called him to tell him the news. He had concerned look on his face when he asked me if I had read any studies about the benefits of speaking two languages to your child, as we do. I speak English to Oliver, and Jaime speaks Spanish to him. Basically, how do we know that speaking two languages to Oliver is beneficial? Or confusing, for that matter? Or as Jaime put it, "What will happen tomorrow if I go outside with Oliver and start saying 'gato' when Oliver sees the cat?"

And you know, I really don't know the answer.