Happy ´Twenty-ninth month´, Fabi!

Every few weeks Fabi does or says amazing things that I want to record so that I won´t forget. Then I realize he´s completed another month of his life. Here are the recent surprise moments he´s had:

- He has a new favorite reply.

• MasalaMom: "Ya nos vamos. Ponte tus zapatos. ¿Dónde están tus zapatos?"
  (We´re going out. Put your shoes on. Where are your shoes?)
• Fabi: "No sé."
  (I don´t know).
  

It´s just so adorable to hear a legitimate complete sentence from a kid who mixes his own words with real ones when he wants to pretend his talking. It´s even funnier to hear the same reply in other circumstances too: "Are you hungry?" - "I don´t know".

- Someone recently asked me if having a little kid is easier than having a little baby. It´s not easier, it´s different. For example, he does the most unexpected things. To name a few: He managed to get hold of a permanent black marker which he found in my desk drawer. Luckily, he only used the marker on his hands (and not on a wall, or any other hard to clean surface). Needless to say I have found a new home for the permanent marker. He has also got hold of a small candle holder and was taking it apart even though he knows that it belongs to Mom and he´s not suppossed to touch it.

All it takes is just a few minutes for me to start doing something in the kitchen and he gets busy with something interesting, like taking out his Dad´s golf balls and distributing them all over the apartment.

- A few days ago, MasalaDad was away on a business trip for 7 days (including the weekend). On Saturday I had cleaned the apartment. On Sunday I was trying to reach Church on time with Fabi when I discovered that he had spilled the banana milkshake he was having for breakfast on the living room floor -including some wooden puzzle pieces. I was so disappointed! He never does that! Why did he have to do it the day I was trying to leave the house to get to Church on time? I knew I had to clean the mess right away before the milk dried. I was kneeling on the floor trying to get everything clean as quickly as possible while thinking this would not have happened if Ishan had been home. All of the sudden Fabi comes up to me, cups my face in his chubby little hands and looks me right in the eye while he says: "Mama....Papa comes, bus!" It was as if he had read my mind! He reminded me that his Dad would be home the next day and that we would reach by bus! That made my day!

- He used to count "Uno, dos, tres." and "One, two, three". Now he counts "uno(1), dos(2), cinco (5), siete(7)."

- He likes to say "Hola!" (Hi!) a lot. He says it when he wakes up and when he runs up to me back and forth at the playground.

- A couple of new English phrases he´s used lately: "Funny!" (when he´s having fun or indeed when something is so funny it makes him laugh); "What´s this?" (as he points to something he wants to know about). In Spanish, his favorite phase is: "Mami, mira!" (Mommy, look!). I like how he says "Mami", "Papi" (although his Dad is usually "Ishan").

- Sometimes I think he´s getting better at playing together/sharing with other kids. But it really depends on who he´s playing with.

The picture at the top of this post shows Fabi "playing" with his favorite friend Emil. Emil´s mom, Sara, turned 29 years old the same day Fabi turned 29 months. It was her who, a few days ago, gave me the best compliment a mother could get. She said: "It shows that you´re doing a wonderful job as a mother to Fabian". Wow!... Sometimes I wonder if that´s truly so, but her comment reminds me to keep trying!