Obama, Yeah!

In case you guys haven't seen this YouTube video, "Obama" has become a part of Jalen's regular vocabulary. When we're riding in the car together listening to NPR, every time he hears "Obama" (which is a lot) he would say "Obama!"

Jalen's Vocabulary at 21 Months

I haven't updated Jalen's progress for a while because the amount of changes he's been going through is less dramatic than when he was younger. He's just doing his job being a kid, playing, eating, napping and pooping. One thing to note is that his vocabulary is growing. He understands a lot of what you're saying and he is starting to say more of it back. Here's a sample of the most common words you'll hear from him.

Mama
Dada
No
Mine - this is a new one and we didn't teach him it either. Perhaps he learned it from daycare?
Please
Thank you - this one still sounds like "doo doo"
More
Juice
Nai nai - milk in Chinese
bye bye
uh oh
cracker
bath
coo coo - baby talk for sleep
car
ball
yeah
Obama
chicken - this one sounds like "chi chi"
bean
apple
banana - he just says nana
cheese
open
close
chair

As you may notice, he knows a lot of important words, most of them involve food!

Jalen Meets Justin

Last Saturday, we met Erin and John's new baby boy Justin. It's been a while since we've held a newborn. We've forgotten how tiny they're! Justin was an angel the whole time, barely making a squeak. We asked Jalen if he wanted to hold Jalen but he did not. He didn't show much interest in the baby until I held him. He leaned over to look then all of sudden, *whack*, swatted at the baby's face. Luckily, it wasn't hard and didn't wake the baby. We're guessing that means Jalen is not ready for a sibling yet?

Jalen is Bilingual, Sort of

We've been teaching Jalen how to use the magic words, "please" and "thank you". When Jalen says "thank you", it comes off sounding like "doo doo". But he can say "thank you" in Chinese better.

Jalen Loves Mamma Mia!

We got Mamma Mia for Christmas and those songs are so darn infectious! They're also universally appealing since Jalen and Grace love them and the grandparents love them too!

Here's Jalen dancing to Super Trooper.

Jalen Opening Christmas Presents

This is the first year that Jalen has discovered how much fun it is to tear away at gift wrappings to get to the presents.

Some Christmas Pictures

We had a very low key Christmas at our house because of all the snow. We went to dim sum for lunch and opened presents at our house with Rick's parents and Betsy's family.

My parents were supposed to come visit on Christmas Eve but they were snowed in. My mom finally made it the Saturday after Christmas and Jalen was very excited about opening more presents.

My dad drove to Seattle on New Year's Day. We were happy to finally have all of the grand parents together.