Don Patricio, Luchador!

Last August we took a trip to Mexico to celebrate my brother Brent marrying his soul mate Ana. It was an amazing week in Tulum staying in a home right on the beach with my family. We were bummed that the resort, Dreams, where most of the wedding party was staying was VERY outside of our price range and the cost to visit as a guest on the resort/ day was $75. That made things challenging for us considering we wanted to be there to celebrate and meet Ana's family who came from Argentina but we also wanted to enjoy the amenities we were already paying for in the beach house we rented. Anyway, I digress...we wound up having a great time in spite of feeling such torn feelings....wow...way too many unnecessary and unrelated details there...oh well. It's who I am.

So, I bring up Mexico because, during that trip Patrick started becoming very socially vocal. What I mean is, he would respond to people looking at him and talking to him with excited screams/ yells. Scott started apologizing to our taxi drivers for our loud child and said things like "he's just training to become a luchador". A new nickname was born: Don Patricio, Luchador!!! We had a fun time calling him that and he had a fun time yelling.

As of late, his language abilities have been EXPLODING. It's so exciting. I've heard people say that you spend the first 2 years of your child's life trying to convince them to talk and the next 18 trying to get them to shut up. This is all said jokingly, of course, but, there is some truth to that. Once they start...they don't stop. Buuuuut, I'll admit, I've been trying to help Patrick develop language skills, sure, I can't help it. We sing songs and read books. I talk to him in the car on my drive back from Kathie's house. When he gestures for something with little grunts I ask him to say "please".

Here's a list of words I've heard him say in the last month or so:
Please (pronounced pleeece)
Keys
Yes
No
Wow
Thank You
Dinah (pronounced Ninah)
Eat
Candy
Trick or Treat
Ball
Shoe
Nose
Eyes
Today

that's all I can think of at the moment. My favorite is when he walks around the house holding Dinah's treat bag and says "Niiiinah" in the same kinds of calling tones that he hears us use to call for her. It's just so. freaking. cute.

Last night, during his bath, he decided to lower himself into the tub laying on his back. I think he liked the way the water felt as it filled his ears because he laughed and laughed and as he came up he was pointing to his ears as he got ready to do the whole thing over again. Just. So. Freaking. Cute.

Tonight, he was pointing up to the hooks where we hang the car keys and Dinah's leash. He obviously wanted something that was up there. He started getting fussy about it because Scott was having a hard time figuring out what it was that he wanted. He then came to me and grabbed me by the leg and pulled me over to the key hooks, obviously thinking that I might be able to help him out. Guys, he's 21 months old. Is it just me or is that pretty smart? I feel like that's pretty smart.

I think we'll keep him.