Do you like my hat?

Bertram has a set of of pop-em beads that he fashions into a hat; or, I suppose I should say his parental units fashion into a hat at his urging. Once he learned the ASL sign and the word for hat, suddenly hats became all the rage. Sometimes, he will sport a hat just for the fun of it around the house.

Anyway, this picture of Bertram makes me think of those medieval paintings in which an incredibly sophisticated looking baby jesus--bathed in a halo of light--has one outstretched palm toward the viewer, and the other hand with the index finger pointing to the heavens. Even though I'm sure I saw a dozen of these types of paintings during my stint as a security guard at the Met Museum, I couldn't find the right one to post here. Still, I think you get the idea.

Language Is A Virus

And he said: Hey! Are you talking to me?
Or are you just practicing
For one of those performances of yours?

Over the last three weeks, young Master B's vocabulary has exploded. I can't say if it's his addiction to the My Baby Can Talk series on the video i-Pod or if it's just developmentally the right time. Truly, these baby sign language DVDs have earned their worth and then some. I think he would watch these same two, 35-minute videos in repeat mode all day if I let him.

On the way back from the Bronx zoo last week, Parental Unit 2 and yours truly started an Excel sheet of Bert's words to date. We even took the time to break down into columns spoken words, words that are signed, and words he understands but does not pronounce clearly or substitutes (eg, quack is now used for 'duck,' down is used to indicate both 'pick me up' and 'put me down'.) Pretty nerdy, I know, but we're fascinated by how some words come to Bertram through ASL signs, then become spoken and how some words enter his vocabulary, clearly from exposure to the DVDs (and good ol' parental reinforcement, although we're OD'd on My Baby Can Talk), but skip the signing stage and go right to the spoken stage.

This past week, he has become more parrot-like, echoing certain words back to us, regardless of whether he truly understands what those words are. The word stinky comes to mind. You can guess when I might say that. Anyway, now Bertram repeats the word when I say it, as in

Parental Unit 1: "Whew-wee, this diaper is stinky!"
Bertram: "Stin-ky!"

Now I need to be mindful of my tendencies to elongate my vowels theatrically as in, "This diaper is stank-kay!"

Apparently, the next step is putting two words together in a phrase. I'm sure this will inspire some creative boddler phrasing.

And, a quick coda, I think it is high time we put the word boddler to rest. Bertram is a fully functioning bi-pedal boy with 50 words at his command. So hence forth, Bertram is a toddler.

Yes, Baby!

This is not a post about Bertram, not really.

Once upon a time there were two roommates living in the fair nabe of Greenpoint. Both in their 30s, they thought about, among other hot topics, having babies. One roommate answered the call to motherhood with a definitive "yes, baby!" The other roommate decided that she needed a year to think about whether or not a baby was in her future.

In this photo, the "maybe baby" roommate holds a very young Master B.

I'm pleased to report that nowadays my former roomie is very much "yes, baby." In celebration of my friend's change in baby status, I will be amassing a list of what I consider to be must-have items for new, first-time parents. I welcome any comments.

Who Loves the Zoo?

IMG_3295, originally uploaded by hal(var).

One guess. I give you one guess.