Hospital visit

I was out when you banged your face against the bed frame this afternoon. Your mum called me to tell me to come back. When I got home, you were asleep and your blood was on your mother's clothes. I lay next to you until you woke. When you did, drowsy, you put your hand down my t-shirt as you often do, and realised I wasn't your mum. You wanted her.
We talked - you are becoming so articulate and words I haven't taught you are used correctly in whole sentences - and then I saw blood was still coming out of the cut above your teeth. We took you to the hospital - an idea you enthuse about - but a reality you weren't so keen on as the nurse, doctor and specialist looked into your mouth.
Everything was okay, which is what I thought (you can't be too careful) and we can mark it down as another experience. You have a fat lip but it worries you not. I'd put you in your new wellies so you splashed around in puddles just outside the hospital when we got off the bus and later outside the Indian restaurant we ate in on the way home.
There are three Indians on Grey's Inn Road by the bus stop called King's Cross station. I'd been into none of them in the fourteen years I've been around here but have visited all three in the last month. You have delighted waiters with your knowledge of the cuisine (poppadom, mango chu(k)ney, pilau rice, nan bread are staples of your vocabulary) and we give you mild curries and a bit of tarka dal.
Son, you are two years and nearly three months old. Your language skills are phenomenal and you motor skills (which I'd worried about because as over-eager parents we may do too much for you) are catching up. You are putting Lego (duplo) together yourself now and 80 more bricks arrive tomorrow. You will always be my special boy.

Hey, playing guitar!

Hackney WickED

Arty open day in East London. Your favourite parts were sharing three ice-creams and dragging three pieces of wood over a large sandy area.

Birthday Party

You had a birthday party at Barnard Park with a bouncy castle and most of your and our friends. Your nanny and granddad came, as did your uncle Trevor and cousin Kasey. Great aunt Rosemary had been in hospital and we'd visited her the previous weekend. You were given money and lots of presents, including a dumper truck and recycling truck that you have played with ever since.

Nanny, Kasey and Rock on the bouncy castle

Rock and Kasey

You had two cakes! Mummy and daddy bought you a cream cake with lots of fruit and daddy's friend Hanka made another. You enjoyed them both.

Blowing out the candle on your birthday cake

A second cake from Hanka

The party went on till late but you went home with mummy about 8.

Joker

You're a funny boy. For a while, you've "teased Daddy" by purposefully changing words. "Miho", which you can say perfectly well, becomes "yoyo"; "Deyika", "gaga"; "Maka Paka" is "gaga gaga" and recently "peanut butter" has become "barnard butter". Your best practical joke came this week. You asked me to inflate my cheeks - as you do - so that you could "pop" them to a raspberry sound by slapping them. You said "again" twice and slapped the air out. On the third time, you got me to inflate my cheeks, made to pop them and then  feigned popping before poking me in the glasses to much hilarity. Today we have laughed about your imagining of alternative police vehicles. This consists of you putting the word "police" before various modes of transport: "police taxi", "police double decker" etc. You're a  little joker.

Bridges etc

For a long time, you have enjoyed little conversations that proceed along the lines of me asking you questions and offering response after response as a suggestion that you say "no" to until I ask the question again and you reply. First of all, this was "Who...?" and the response you'd give was "Baby Rock". We still do this: "Can daddy sit on the chair?", "No," "Can mummy sit on the chair?" with everyone you know (nainai, yeye, Alicia, Ayaka, Deyika, Faisel, Emiko, Julie etc) and more recently, it revolves - as I've said before - around taking a number 17 bus to London Bridge (you love bus rides). "Shall we go to Tower Bridge?" "Shall we go to Millennium Bridge?" ... "Where shall we go?" Rock: "London Bridge". "How shall we go there? Shall we go there by train?" "No" "Shall we go by helicopter/ambulance/truck/motorcycle etc?" "How shall we go there?" "bus". "What number bus? Shall we take the 205?" etc. "What colour is the bus? Is it dark blue?" You get the picture. You enjoy the conversations and so do I, son.

Joining Daddy on his latest interest

Ca-ter-pil-lar

Your first four-syllable word is caterpillar. Your development thrills me and your mum. In the last couple of days you've started using "another" (pronunciation will improve yet) and love talking about the bridges over the Thames you've been to. "Number 17 bus London Bridge" is a favourite little phrase of yours after successive weekend visits to the river.

Creative

You are 20 months old. After your bath today, you wanted the sponge. When I gave it to you while your mummy was drying you, you squeezed it in the middle and said "ba". "Ba" is the Mandarin word for 8, which a squashed-in-the-middle sponge looks like. However, you still say "ba" for a butterfly, which I've been trying (especially in the last couple of days) to get you to say the whole word for (and you've done so very well). I asked whether you meant "butterfly" and you replied "ocho" (Spanish for 8). You are not only multilingual and creative, but able to adapt to what you understand my perception of what your understanding is.
Your mum has called you a genius for a long time. I have been more cautious (babies learn lots and fast). Today I thought your mum could well be right. You can count to 10 in 4 languages and know colours and body parts in the same. We use your the names of your "teachers" to get you to speak different languages. For example, "What colour is the sofa?" "ojo" (your "R" is not very good, yet). "Ayaka (your Japanese teacher) iu to?" and you answer "aka". We just need to keep the stimuli going. You are doing amazingly, son.

Kick ball

Your first verb and object combination.

Rock the Alphabet

RongJu

Your mum has pretty much settled on a Chinese name for you, meaning "flourishing wisdom" because you're so smart, our multilingual son.

Natural History Museum

Phrases

You are starting to put words together ("Let's go" was learnt as a pairing and doesn't count). "Bye Daddy" was your first and now "small spoon", "big shoe", "green apple" and more. Tomorrow you have your first Japanese lesson.

Our first joke

You know your animal sounds. I ask you "What does a lion say?" and you say "Raa". "What does un gato say?" "Miaow", un perro, a horse, una culebra, a sheep, una cabra, a fish, a dolphin, un lobo, and a few more, with sounds I have thrown in for your bath-toy turtle ("Oh no" (he's a pessimist)) and crab too. Yesterday, I asked what Baby Rock says, and suggested "down" (still one of your favourite words, though "big" and "small" are having their moment). So today when I asked again, you answered "down" and caused a laugh from your parents.

18 Months

First holiday

We had a great two-week holiday in the Jaz Mirabel Park resort in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. You loved the infant pools and the sea and got to see fish and a ray and to ride a camel. You developed so much in the time: your language improved and so did your social skills (you started saying "hi" and "bye", the former especially to children).

It's not the sort of holiday I'm used to (having spent years backpacking) but it was a great way to have some lovely time together. Your mum wants to go away again this month.

Happy New Year, my beautiful son.