Closing in on the first birthday… (11 days away)

So, tomorrow is the first anniversary of my due date. As I get ready for Nico’s first birthday, I’m actually grateful that I have more time (after Christmas and Valentine’s Day, which is busy at my job) to prepare. I’m pretty sure, though, that the 2010 (Pregnant) Me wouldn’t have been terribly convinced. Anyway, looks like the blog is going to have a little more activity pretty soon, since it won’t be too long until Nico starts talking.

Of course, a bilingual baby may start speaking on the later side of normal, and I’ve been expecting that, and boys tend to start speaking later than girls. I’m prepared to wait a while.

So far, basically everyone and everything is “Dada” including Nico himself. If we point to him and say “Nico,” he’ll pat his chest and say “Dada!” If we try to get him to say Mamã, he’ll say “Dada” (though sometimes, he does say ma-ma, but it’s used indiscriminately just like “Dada.” He made both sounds at around 6 months, in a string of ma-ma-ma-ma and da-da-da-da, but da-da became the favorite.

BUT in the past few days, when Nico’s sitting in his high chair and I say “banana”, he says “nana.” Maybe I’m just doing the parent thing, where I ascribe meaning to random noises, but he seems to mean it.

The only “problem” is, with the word “banana” it’s hard to tell which language he’s trying to speak, since both English and Portuguese use the word (the pronunciation is slightly different, but Nico’s pronunciation is not particularly nuanced at this point so we still can’t really tell).

I’m really wondering which language will come first.

In other news, Nico has had eight teeth since before he was 9 months old, and teeth #9-12 are clearly on their way in. He’s been pulling himself up since around 9 months, and for a long time now he’s walked if we hold his hands. If we stand him up and let go of his hands, he’ll sometimes take a step or two (but we think this is accidental).

 

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