Elias is Verbal! Strings of sentences with the intonation of emotion and correct punctuation, followed by giggles and sometimes guffaws, and sounding like Chinese. But he makes more sense in our languages, and is like a parrot really. He even busted me the other day for saying J-E-S-U-S. Ooops. Most famously, he says "Obama." His favorite word, because he gets more attention for that than, Mama, Dadda, and Hi combined. So we took him to see the President the other day, when Barack Obama came to visit Pomona. Michelle Obama is putting a school garden into the White House, and every time I hear any news of the this wonderful family, I am proud.
Anyway, he has said it to much, Tino finally told him that the word has expired and he needs to find another name... Elias promptly responded, "Kobe." So my mom was happy.
Several things he can name in both Swahili and English- though I think he still gets a little confused. He knocks on a door if we say "Knock-Knock" and also says "Hodi!" He will say "baby" but also "toto", he says dog and mbwa (which actually sounds a lot like the woof-woof, which I'd never realized before goes with my oniomipea theory of Swahili, but Elias does a good and distinctive woof-woof apart, when he is feeling goofy.) He says tree and mti, so similar I think he doesn't get the difference, and he says, tweet tweet for bird, which he doesn't seem to confuse, even though the birds are often in the trees.) Today he said 'boy'' and pointed to a picture of a boy in his nursery rhyme book. He loves his new Elmo book, and although he still needs to be prompted, says his name. This past week I think he has been missing his daycare, because he will suddenly come up with 'Hola.' He woke up on Wednesday, stood up in his crib, and said Hola to us. I could of sworn it was followed by Como estas? But, regardless, he obviously derives much joy from the word, which I think speaks to how much he enjoys his school. We all love the bright orange daycare. I must get them another docena of tamales. Everywhere we go, he points to a light and says 'Taa!' Which is correct, and we just really aren't bothering to teach him another word at this point. So it is with other perfect swahili words, "kuku' for chicken, ''saa' for clock. Its just easier. But all words will come. He says nyota. But I am sure that he understands "star' as well. I mean, here I am just going down my mental list, but it really is so amazing to observe the parroting capacity that we have as humans. If this pace of learning were to keep up.... man! But I am sure it does, which is exactly what becomes the problem. Learning, teaching, discussing, playing, resting, enjoying. Can we do this forever?
