Vocabulary Explosion

For the past several weeks, Ian's vocabulary has grown exponentially. From his first coherent word, "abwa" for agua, to all of this today (with English phonetics):

English Words
statue (tah-too)
book (buh)
car (cah)
store (stoh)
water (wa-duh)
apple (ap-oh)
Mimi (mimi)
Daddy (daddy)
nom-noms (nah-nah)
Mommy (nah-nah) LOL!
school (skoo)
No (noh)
tree (tee)
fart (fah)
"I know" (says it perfectly!)
"thank you" (tay-too)
cheese (teeee)
Sylvia (tee-via)
Jennifer (jeh-...)
Grandy (daddy) LOL!
Oliver (ah-buh-buh)
George (geoh)
down (dow)
diaper (dy-poh)

Spanish Words
abuela (a-geh-jah) - grandmother
agua (abwa) - water
pajaro (tah-tah) - bird
trilliza (ti-zah) - triplet, from a cartoon he watches
No (noh)
tortilla (tee-ya)
leche (leh-teh) - milk
sapo (tah-toh) - frog
niño (nee-noh) - boy
niña (nee-nah) - girl
caca (caca) - poop
chi-chi (tee-tee) - pee
aqui/aca (says perfectly) - here
alla (says perfectly) - there

Jason spends a ton of time reading with Ian, going over words, quizzing him, etc. Mami and I spend lots of time enriching his vocabulary as well (her in Spanish, me in English) by speaking to him non-stop. Full ride to Harvard, here we come.

Ian also mimics tons of words that we say, as we say them. There is a lot more he understands than he can utter. One thing that is so 100% Jason is that Ian is not afraid to attempt to say anything. It reminds me of the time J and I were in Nice and he used a bastard-mix of Spanish, English and possibly Portuguese to attempt communicating with the French. It was awesome.

It's All Happening At the Zoo

On Memorial Day, Jason and I took advantage of the cool morning air and a day off from work to visit the Dallas Zoo with Ian. He loved it!

Making friends at the petting zoo

A look inside the koi pond

Gimme gimme chickens!

A serious elephant

Graceful Giraffes

At Gigi's Lakehouse

The Sunday before Memorial Day, the three of us headed east to Grandma Hazel's lake house in Mineola, Texas. Lake water freaks me out, but the boys (Jason, Uncle Josh and Ian) had a blast swimming around in that murky water!






Before jumping in the lake, Ian enjoyed exploring the grounds around the lake house, smelling hydrangeas, yelling "tree!", and checking EVERYTHING out very cautiously. So cute.

Good-bye School!

This past Friday was Ian's last day at his very first daycare - Arapaho United Methodist. We were all very sad, but no one was as sad as his caregivers, Tia and Nina. They loved "little Bubba" so much. Jason and I backed cookies to say "thank you" for their compassion and caring, but there really is no way to thank the first "strangers" to fall in love with the Chunks.



We'll miss you, Arapaho!

Summer Days at Abuela's + Grandy's

Good Times in Oak Cliff

This weekend we had a blast doing fun artsy things around Oak Cliff during the 2nd Annual Art Crawl. This consisted of the Urban Street Bazaar, A Better Block, and many, many other activities and functions.

Ian squats for a better view of the goats at the Better Block's petting zoo.

Eating his favorite food at La Reyna's on Davis @ Tyler

Ian and I ate lunch together at Cafe Brazil on Saturday. The waiter kindly posted our Spring Bash poster in their window!

Ian chills at the Urban Street Bazaar with goat poop on his shoes - nice!

Outside in the Backyard

Jason and I are certain we have a James Audubon in the making. Ian loves to be outside and wants to be there all day long. We spend hours out in the backyard, the park, or walking down the street. Ian touches all the flowers, picks some of the weedy ones (which is just fine thank you), and points at the sky yelling, "Ta-tas!" (birds).


He and I spent a couple hours out in the backyard on Saturday doing nothing really. Just enjoying the incredible weather and looking and touching EVERYTHING. Every now and then I would do a crossword puzzle, scoop poop, or do a little weeding.

Ian is truly an outdoors type. We have this sand and water table on the way, and I cannot wait for Ian to get his hands on it! Here are some photos and a video from this past weekend. Enjoy!