Van on the Run

Full speed:



Slo-Mo:



He's steady enough on his feet now to want to run, but not quite steady enough to do it well.  He's still got the toddles whether he's walking or running, but he thinks it's swag.

Interactive

It's a funny thing with a kid this age.  He's old enough to obviously have his own agenda, but not old enough to articulate what exactly that is.  Seeing him acting out his interior thoughts is comedy because, as an adult, we ascribe certain thoughts to his actions, like he's a kid from Look Who's Talking Now.  Which he obviously isn't, but we just put these thoughts in his head in an effort to make sense of what he's doing.  He's starting to talk a lot more now, so this era of thought bubbles is coming to a close, but his attempts at speech are funny in a totally different way.  And adorable.

He has maybe a dozen or fifteen words that he uses regularly, though he understands more than that.  In a family with a toddler, it's a kind of backwards logic that the kid teaches the family his words and the family adopts the kid's vocabulary.  One such word we've taken on is ChiCha, which we believe means "sister," though for him it's a little more broad.  He definitely uses it for Huelan, but also sometimes points to other people and himself as says ChiCha. So far, he doesn't yet have a name for himself, but he can name pretty much everyone he sees regularly.

This is a vid I got one recent morning, and it's pretty much the story of every morning.  At least the good ones (of which there are more, since he's been waiting til after 7AM to wake- Hallelujah!).  He gets a bottle then we play around a bit - here we're in the kitchen getting a morning snack.  As he's trying to convince me to get him some more, he hears his ChiCha in her room.  In his mind, the fact that she's kind of awake is permission to enter.



He's matured so much just in the past week or two.  He's definitely trying to communicate with words and he is super playful.  Kissing and hugging are huge with him right now- everyone gets a goodnight kiss and he kisses Elmo every time he sees him.  Big, demonstrative, smoochy kisses.  It's pretty much the best.  Here's something he picked up- the stinky feet game:



Speaking of Elmo, I have no idea how Sesame Street does it, but they are terrific at creating these addicting characters for kids.  Vansen met Elmo for the first time at a cousin's birthday last month, and he's been obsessed with him ever since.  Vansen is a pretty big and feisty kid, and he is particularly ornery on the changing table.  When he has to be on there for an extended period of time, we've taken to showing him a YouTube clip of Elmo.  It's gotten to the point now that when he loads up his diaper, he makes us aware of it by pointing to his butt and saying, "Elmo!"

Shocking

Rain just started coming down in earnest, around 6:30am. If it's as bad as people are predicting, maybe I'll take tomorrow off and catch up on some pics and posts. 

Here's a pic from post bath last night to til then. 

Tree Pickin

Last year we tried starting a tradition and went to a tree farm in Sebastapol, about an hour away. Apple cider, hay rides, piny rides, the while nine yards. 

This year, we decided to go with a different tradition- doing it the easy way. There's a Boy Scouts tree lot about 5 mins away, and we bought the first tree the kid showed us. We rooted around a little bit for the kids' tree, but we were in and out in record time- probably 30 mins!  I like this tradition. 

Open Open Open

The bacon will be done in a few minutes buddy. 

Air Vasen

Everyone says that little boys are more physically hyper than little girls. We had a pretty active one with Huelan, so I thought a boy probably wouldn't, couldn't be much more rambunctious than her. I was wrong. The boy is just wired differntly. He is into everything, and he's kind of a brute, so he tears everything to pieces. Climbs a stool to get to a chair to get to a counter where he can grab something and shake it. You can see in his eyes that needs to be working on getting something out of reach. Gotta love the motor, but we need a safe, constructive release, and we found one, at least for a few minutes- improving his vertical.

He's counting to three in Vietnamese- something I do with him each time I flip him around or toss him up. 

Ahhhh!

Seriously, feel like I look away for a second and I've got five vids to post and hundreds of pics. I haven't even posted Halloween pics!

Well let's tackle these one at a time: 

Halloween was a super blast this year. At nearly five years old, this is the first time that Huelan has been so excited about a holiday. She's talked about it for months, musing about costumes and practicing her trick or treat schpeel, and going through the Oriental Trading Company catalogs circling everyone's favorite candies. The thing was in tatters, all dog eared and marked up like a manic's . 

Of course it was all about the candy. We stayed in the neighborhood this year- Grandma and Papa even came from SF- the first time in over 40 years they didn't great trick or treaters on 8th Ave! Unfortunately, we didn't get many kids coming around our house this year- the older ones were at parties and there aren't many young families- just us and one other family. 

But that didn't dampen Huelan's spirits at all. In fact, I think she sensed that the small number of competitors was in her favor. Neighbors figured out that not many kids were coming, so they dished out swollen handfuls of candy at almost every house. Some double handfuls. She harvested two buckets of sweets from 30 mins of work. 

This year we tried something new- The Switch Witch. We asked Huelan to wrote a list of toys, as if Santa was coming, and leave it for the Switch Witch. "If you leave her enough candy, maybe she'll bring you a gift from your list!"  Well, she was skeptical to say the least. We could see the wheels grinding in her sugar-addled brain. She had a contemplative, crooked smile on her face as she literally weighed her options. Transfer a few pieces of candy to the Switch Witch bucket as shift it around a little bit to see if it looked like enough. Or too much. We finally got her to fill a bucket full with candy, and we could see that she was not confident about this working out in her favor. This was perfectly good, freshly earned candy she was parting with, and she had not a drop of faith in this Switch Witch. 

Well, the Switch Witch came through, with adorable results:

http://youtu.be/nJQKjNBrACA

Later she told me secretively, "I still have a lot of candy left." That she does. 

This was also the first year that I couldn't talk her into letting me make her costume. I was kind of sad, but also kind of lazy and found a $17 costume on Amazon, so it worked out okay. At least I got to make Vansen's vest. 

The rest of the Halloween pics are here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/101465883844458883558/201410OctWithHalloween

Second Spring

We spent a lot of time outdoors this weekend, taking advantage of some outstanding outdoor conditions. The autumn weather this week has been near perfect- a slightly crisp air balanced perfectly with warm, orange-tinted sunlight. It's so nice, in fact, that after a few small showers the week before, we saw a number of plants on our hike shooting up tender green new sprouts. Go figure.

The end of the Joaquin Miller loop

Brightening up the deck with some new plants

Stowe Lake paddle boats

A little something for the ducks

Weekend mornings = both kids piling into our bed

Dropping Huelan off at Grandma's for her sleepover. Stowe Lake, sandwiches at Roxy, JP Murphy playground = Gorgeous Sunset afternoon. 

Huelan is staying tonight and possibly tomorrow night with Grandma and Papa, just for kicks.  We're hitting the sack before 10:15. Everybody wins. 

Halloween and October Fun (for some)

Check out the mug on the boy- not pleased!  But he got over it.

Ba Noi Visit

This is a couple of weeks late (and we miss her already)!  It had been almost three months since Ba Noi's last visit, so we had a lot to catch up on, but it was a great little visit.  Huelan and Vansen both immediately took to Ba Noi and barely left her side the entire weekend.  

We had a couple of other visitors, too.  Mark and Rene stayed the weekend and checked out the Folsom Street Fair- they came in Saturday morning. And coincidentally, Cheryl was in town doing some work stuff on Friday.  A couple of phone calls later, she had her flight changed and her new BF Teague on a plane to SF to meet us.  Really nothing like getting old, old friends together over some tasty food.  

It's mind-boggling to reflect on how long we've known each other- early elementary school was a looong time ago.  And though we're no longer in touch everyday, there's an almost tangible bond formed with people with whom you've shared childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and whatever comes after that.  Other than your family, who actually probably know less about your antics than your good friends, these are the people who really know you.  Gosh we're blessed with good friends.  

Here are some pics

Belly

At about the same age, Huelan and Vansen both acquired a fascination with belly buttons.  When Huelan was about 15 months old, she would constantly bare her belly and point to her own bellybutton, as well as demand the same of others, even in the most inappropriate places.

Vansen is a little less demanding with his belly button mania, though slightly more specific.  He prefers the pink belly and the raspberrry.

Baseball

Presented without comment. 

Favorite Food

Vansen recently weighed in at 30.9lbs and 33" tall, which is 98th percentile in weight and 97th in height. He also is in the 97th percentile of head circumferenece. At least he's proportional. 

Here he is eating his favorite dish- he can ask for it by name.  He calls it, "More."

Torn

These poor kids. Used as a rope in a familial tug-of-war.  How long before they begin to fray from the pressure of being pulled in every direction?

Climber

They're probably more similar than different. They both are very cuddly and like to play with dolls. One obvious difference we've noticed is that the boy is definitle a climber. Up the stairs every chance he gets. Pushing boxes and stools around the house to use as boosters. As seen above, they both enjoy a spot of evening tea, but he prefers to pour while standing on the table. 

Shaker

This is from a while back, but I had to reach back and include it.  Liz and some of her girlfriends planned a food and wine retreat in Napa one weekend in late August- a beautiful time to be in wine country.  So imagine five women, with eight kids between them.  One of them a mother of young twins on her first weekend away from her boys.  They are having a blast being chauffeured around, eating, and drinking at every stop, and documenting it all on Facebook.  I couldn't resist counter-posting, letting them know that the dads were having a good time too.

Their relaxed weekend took a wild turn early Sunday morning though, in the form on the strongest earthquake in the bay area in the last 25 years, centered just 4 miles from their hotel.  Napa is far enough from our house so that I was barely woken by the shakes. But in their hotel, they felt the full 6.1- drawers flying open, dishes on the floor, and car alarms blaring.  And soon, moms screaming. They had no idea that they were on top of the epicenter, and that down here we barely felt it- in their minds, a 6.1 in Napa meant a 9.1 at home.  So I was surprised to get a phone call at 3:30 am and even more surprised to hear an adrenaline-amped Liz on the other end.  In my deep sleep, I didn't even realize that she wasn't in the bed next to me or that Huelan was spending the night at Uncle Anh's.

Thankfully, everyone ended up being just fine and Napa only saw mild property damage.  But all that relaxing got shaken out of the girls, so they'll have to plan another weekend.

Triple Header

Learning to walk comes with the requisite tumbles.  And if you're top heavy like this guy, you're going to get some knocks on your noggin.  Sunday he took a header at Sam's, Monday he went face first into the concrete at the pool, finally Wednesday he took a spill in the bathroom and cut himself on the cabinet handle.  All in the exact same spot, and this pic actually doesn't do it justice.

I still think that his sister wins the prize for best shiner though- this one from Oct, 2011:

R.O.C. Race

Obstacle course races are all the rave nowadays.  I see how it could be fun, but really have no interest in training for one.  The Ridiculous Obstacle Course Race was built for people like me.  But instead Roxanna signed up Liz and Vivien for the Sacramento edition.  Too bad that Liz strained her calf muscle playing volleyball the week of the race.  We still went up to Sac to spend the day and get the kids together though, which was super fun for everyone.  Especially Huelan and Stella, who got to partake in the foam party at the finish line.  Foam and blaring trance music- I'm not as fond of that as I used to be.

Some pics here

Anh and Patty's Spain and Italy Honeymoon

 

This is long overdue, but we had another first in our married lives (besides visiting Spain and Italy), going on our official Honeymoon!

Some might know that we took off to Maui for some time right after our wedding, from popular belief, that should of been called our "Honeymoon", but Patty convincingly dubbed it our "Mini-moon". I've never heard of that term before, but I guess it's what all the kids are doing nowadays. Anyway, we got to plan for another trip!

During the planning phase we chose 2 countries, Spain and Italy. In those countries, we visited: Madrid, Barcelona, Bologna, Florence, Cinque Terre and Rome in that order. Travelling wasn't that bad, I had to convince Patty in going "backpack style" and it was a hard sell, but once we arrived to Europe, it was agreed that backpacking was definitely the way to go - backpacking fit perfectly with our travel style on this trip. Witnessing other travellers hauling massive luggage behind them, a couple of times tripping people, leaving only one free hand and sometimes no free hands. With all of our belongings securely strapped on our back, it gave us more freedom to take pictures, hold hands, scratch my butt, and other useful things. Even though Patty's pack was about half her size, she did great.

Barcelona, Florence, Cinque Terre and Rome were our favorite cities - I don't want to discount Madrid, it was probably the jetlag talking.

Our Honeymoon was thoroughly enjoyed. Definitely absorbed all we could both visually and digestively as you can see from the photos when you click this link Photos Here!

Swim

It's after Labor Day, but for us here in the bay, summer's just about to hit its stride. Perfect time to get Huelan more comfortable in the water. 

She's spent a fair amount of time in the pool up to now- pool parties, Uncle Tom's house, Ba Noi's house, etc- but she's never been comfortable taking the next step beyond her floaty vest. Efforts at getting her to blow bubbles or put her head under water have been met with significant resistance. And some frustration on both sides. 

So we decided to bring in some pros, and lo-and-behold she takes to it like, well, a fish to water. (Kind of on the nose, I know, but I couldn't resist.) Dunk your head? Ok! Blow bubbles? Yeah! Float on your back? Sure!

She's has two lessons thus far and she's having a great time.  Though when I ask her what her favorite part is, she tells me that it's the dried mango snacks they hand out after class.  Yes, they are professionals. 

Preschool Big Kid

Just before the start of school in the fall, Huelan's preschool has a little ceremony for the kids who will be moving on to kindergarten in the following weeks.  It's a pot luck held in the evening at a local park, so it makes it easy for the parents of all the kids to attend, not just the kids who are moving on.  Part of the ceremony is something that all the kids work on leading up the ceremony- leading a song.  It's not worked out ahead of time who's going to lead which song, and not everyone has to do it if they don't want to.  Of course not participating is not an option for Huelan.  And of course she picks the longest song the class knows, in order to maximize her song-leading time.

So the 5+ year olds move on, leaving a void of Big Kids that the slightly younger kids have to fill.  I wonder who's going to enjoy stepping into that spot...?

MEGA POST

It's now the late middle of August, and so far this month has been awesome.  Instead of cheaping out and doing another bullet-point post, I am going to try and do a few honest ones all in one mega-post.  To me, it's better than trying to do a bunch of separate posts because then the blog timeline gets all screwed up and I get vertigo.  Since a lot has happened and I have a lot to share, here's a table of contents so that you can skip to relevant sections and find your way back later should you need to grab a beverage (or do some work) and come back later:

1. Anh's birthday ribs and blue cake
2. Toscanini quick visit
3. Lake Tahoe family trip
4. Sir Paul McCartney closes down Candlestick
5. Vansen walking all over the place
6. Rundown of Vansen's first words

1. Anh's birthday ribs and blue cake
 

Anh's birthday is July 2, but since he and Patty were off gallivanting in southern Europe around that time, on the second honeymoon (???), we finally got together sometime in late July (or was it early Aug?  kind of a blur).  35!  I have a little brother who is 35 years old, jeez.  Liz and Huelan made a chocolate cake with Dodger Blue-ish icing, and I smoked a few racks of ribs.  Vansen's even got his first taste of baby backs, which you can see had him gnawing at the bone for more.

2. Toscanini quick visit

Shortly after that, Gerardo and Loni stopped by on their way down from Seattle with their kids Francisco and Marco.  Fun loving kids!  Loni was outstanding with all the kids and Huelan was sorry to see them leave after spending just one night.  Vansen got along great with Francisco, who was sport enough to let Vansen tackle him repeatedly.  A little Zachary's pizza, and the kids went to bed while Gerardo and I partook ofa few bourbon nightcaps on the deck.

Liz missed them because on Friday night, she got on a flight to Vegas right after work for Vern's bachelorette party.  So a great weekend was had by all.

More Toscanini Visit Pics

3. Lake Tahoe family trip



                                                   (Photo credit: Sophia Lee)



For more than three decades, Liz's family has spent some portion of their summer in the same neighborhood in North Lake Tahoe called Agate Bay.  It's a short walk from the lake, a community pool, and pee-wee golf.

We set up the trip in a kind of unusual way.  We had the house from Saturday to Saturday, and since Liz was in Vegas for the first weekend and I had both kids, Laurie and Sophia picked up Huelan on Saturday morning for the trip, which she was super excited about and helped me out tremendously.  Liz came back on Sunday evening and she packed up her gear that night so that she and Vansen could hit the road Monday morning.  I finally joined them Wednesday morning.

I did have Vansen for one day & night when it was night just us boys. We hit up Little Farm in Berkeley and went for some soft tofu at PyongChang. The kid can eat, and I'll not talking about the goats. 

So, if you're doing the math, I had two nights all alone in the house all by myself.  This is not a common occurrence.  So what was I going to do?  The possibilities were endless.  Play golf?  Pub crawl? Projects around the house?  Nothing nearly so exciting- I worked a few extra hours since I was going to be gone the rest of the week, did some laundry and packed, and watched movie on Netflix.  Two things I did that I am kind of proud of- checked out a new "restaurant" and finally stopped in at the bar at the bottom of the hill, Monaghan's on the Hill, which has outstanding happy-hour specials and was hoppin at 4:30 on a Tuesday.  And it's within stumbling distance (if you want to burn about 1500 calories stumbling up the hill).

The reason I put quotes around "restaurant" is because it's more of a storefront.  Not fast food, they make everything to order.  But everything they make is fried.  Here's one picture of the menu and another of the clientele.

The Chinese proprietors spoke barely enough English to take my order.  Since everything is fried to order, there's a 15min-or-so wait.  There entire time that I was there, every customer who came in was black.  So here's a serious question- based on those two observations, does it make me racist to believe that this is going to be the best fried catfish this side of NOLA?  Or does it just make me prejudiced?  Or does it make me racist to think that that might make me racist?  Keep in mind that the best seafood I've had in NOLA was at a fish market run by Vietnamese whose clientele was almost all black.  I'll suffer your judgement in the comments section. My verdict on the food: top notch, if you're looking for deep fried foods with a slice of bread and a side of fried rice.  I had the catfish and wings, though I heard a lot of people order the prawns and I love oysters, so I might have to make another visit before I submit my judge's card.

Other than those brief variances from the usual, it was pretty tame.  I watched World War Z and finished the Cosmos series, neither of which Liz would be down to watch with me for different reasons.

Without Liz and the kids home, it felt the weirdest after dinner.  The weeknight program we've developed (I decline to say routine, which has a connotation of boring, or rote) is effective and efficient, and we rarely deviate from it more than 15 minutes.  Being in the house, but not implementing the program, was a little surreal.  Like the last day on the playa without the man- you kind of lose your bearings and don't really know where you are or what time it is.  The markers that indicate the night progressing all disappeared and I was left kind of floating untethered through the evening until I finally got into bed (too late) in an eerily quiet house. No one to clean up after, no one check on, no one tuck in.  Like people who live near Niagra Falls, the constant background noise and activity becomes second nature and it's totally internalized.  Without it, you just don't feel like yourself.

Back to the Tahoe trip.  The first few days they were there, they had to endure some freaky thunderstorms and rain.  Some parts of the Sierras saw torrents of rain and hail, so I guess they could have had it worse. But was it was, they were confined to the house for almost two solid days.  By the time I got there, the weather, though humid still, was really nice- perfect for horseshoe tossing in the yard, BBQing (I probably ate seven hot dogs, the large Costco ones), swimming, and of course pee-wee golf.  Huelan loved all the activities.  At the community pool, they have been doing the same kids games for decades.  The days we went were Bingo and something called the Penny Dive.  During the Penny Dive, the staff throws hundreds of pennies into the pool and the kids dive down to retrieve them.  Huelan calls it the Coin Festival. There are a few special coins, ones with holes drilled in them, that can be exchanged for an ice cream sundae at the snack bar.  Oh man, Huelan talked about that for days leading up to the Coin Festival.  Sadly, she didn't get a special coin, but she did manage to collect 23 pennies (which they kindly exchanged for a quarter), and, in a move that surprised no one, Grandma bought her a treat from the snack bar.

Here are a few thoughts on Little Kids and Money.  Little Kids don't know jack about Money.  Not that we're trying to teach her to be frugal (yet), just what the different coins mean and how many of these make up one of those.  Case in point- the arcade at the pee-wee golf course (growing up, we called it miniature golf, but I'll make this concession).  Her favorite game was the Candy Crane, which advertises that you can "Play Til You Win."  Which means you pay TWO QUARTERS, and you get to send the claw over to grab some candy, like so:


So for a half  of a dollar, she gets one mini-pack of Starburst (which consists of two pieces).  One time she "really won" and got a mini-pack of skittles and a roll of Sweeties.  Jackpot! We put five bucks in that machine and ended up with a handful of candy left over from last Halloween.  But she loved it, so what are you gonna do?  There was only one other "game" that came close to the Candy Crane in her heart.  I say "game" because it was really just the array of dispensers that spit out Chinese-made junk toys in little hard-shell plastic bubbles.  But, she'd put her (my) quarters in, crank that little silver dial, and I'll-be-darned if she didn't win every single time.  Can't argue with success.  Or that triumphant smile of hers.

Pics from Late July and Tahoe- I'll be adding some more as soon as I get them tidied up.

4. Sir Paul McCartney closes down Candlestick
I'll finish the remaining chapters of this mega-post later this week, but for now here is a teaser pic of from the concert and a Slo-Mo video of Vansen walking:

Ok I'm back, and I’m picking up the Paul McCartney thread.  Many people do not know that I really love the Beatles.  As a teen, I had most of their records and would play them on a plastic Aiwa stereo with little, tinny speakers.  Those records, along with a near-complete Led Zeppelin collection, melted in the garage shortly after I left for Cal. But long before all that vinyl went Dali, those tracks carved deep grooves in my musical identity.  

Robin Williams described Beatles music as, "Part of our genetic material." My dad, whose English was extremely limited when I was young, actually could approximate quite a few Beatles lyrics he heard in Viet Nam. Hearing him sing Besame Mucho, an early Beatles cover, was just awesome, and it still echos in my head occasionally now.

When Liz and I met, I was rocking this leather Beatles wallet.  It was vintage-y to begin with, but I had been tucking it in my back pocket for probably ten years, so it was well-broken in. This was the pic on it:

It was a billfold, and the half of it that faced the outside of the pocket was so worn that Ringo and Paul's faces were just about erased.  I had used superglue on it at least a dozen times at the seams, but it finally gave up the ghost probably about six years ago.

I'm not a superfan- the kind that collect memorabilia and knows every tour stop, but the music just has a place in my heart. And So after having missed Paul last year at Outside Lands (I didn't even know he was playing), I was determined to go to this concert at Candlestick.  If either he or I was to die without me hearing and feeling those songs come out of his mouth and off his guitar live, I would consider that a great heartbreak. Bucketlist kind of stuff.

And I am glad to say that the show did not disappoint.  Even though I hear that he played the same set list as most of the other venues on this tour, even told many of the same jokes, that makes not one iota of difference.  Even though getting in and out of Candlestick was an epic cluster, I'd happily pay to do it again this weekend if I could.

Today is Monday, the concert was last Thursday.  I'm still kind of kind of floating on air, and that's no small feat.  I've been watching YouTube clips of the concert for days, and am actually watching footage from the entire Tokyo concert as I write this.  It's actually kind of nice that the setlist doesn't vary much because watching this vid takes me right back.  And I could use the memory nudge because I don't quite remember all of the discrete moments, but I do remember the big ones, and I definitely recall the excitement and near-euphoria,.  Also, it was the tightest Liz and I had hugged and danced and shouted lyrics in a long time (I smuggled in a liter box of wine).  We danced to a Beatles song the first time we were introduced as a married couple.  

It was a rockin, boppin, joyous concert, and though the old man's voice is showing some age, he can still rock that guitar and piano (and crowd) like a Beatle should, for nearly three hours. 72 years young! “When you've got a job to do, you got to do it well….” 

Here's her standing on the grass at Candlestick, cheering on the beginning of Hey Jude:

Taking another break now- will be back to tell you all about Vansen walking and climbing all over like he owns the place.


5.  Vansen gettin to steppin



The difference between him in this vid vs. the Slo-Mo vid higher up the post is significant, and they're only three days apart.  He's discovered that he likes being bipedal and he's not going back. Kids learning to walk look a lot like orangutans- with a lot of side to side sway (swag?) and wobbles. This vid documents his personal record (at the time) for upright distance, and he even throws in a little change of direction for style.  Points deducted for bumper-carring off the door, but he covered it up well.  

There's basically no going back from here.  We've been slowly raising things off the floor that we don't want him to get into, but now there's no place left for us to keep stuff. He's into all of the top drawers, and it didn't take him very long to figure out that he can push stuff around the house and stand on it in order to increase his reach.

He even discovered that instead of being put down for a nap against his will, he can just crawl down from my lap and stroll out of the room. We are officially In For It.



6. Rundown of Vansen's first words

He's been talking for a while now.  If memory serves us, we don't think he's quite as talkative as Huelan was at his age, which is pretty common for boys. Besides, Huelan is a chatterbox and we can't have two of those or we'd go nuts.  

We think his first word, officially, was, "Uh-oh."  And he used it properly- every time he'd drop something off of his highchair tray, it was, "Uh-oh," and a laugh.  He'd see us drop something, and it was, "Uh-oh."  This went on for weeks, before his second word, which was, "Da-Da."  He definitely called me Da-Da, but then that kind of went away, and he started calling everyone Ma-Ma.  We actually surmised that Ma-Ma wasn't a person, but rather it's what he says when he wants to get picked up.

Now, his favorite word is, "More," as in More Food.

This is also a gem:



I know that it's impossible to decipher the syllable soup that parents have with their kids, but let me assure you, he's saying, "Cheers."  He's 1/4 Irish.  We're so proud.