I'm sure you all know this, but I have a deep dislike of phones and phone conversations. Usually, in order to combat this, I hide it under the bed. But now I have a better solution: Cael!

The little dude has a love of phones that has to be inherited from his father. If anyone is using a phone, he must be a part of the conversation. It's as if phones call out to him, "Slobber on me! I need some drool!" His obsession goes so far that he will make other objects into phones. He frequently picks up television remotes and holds them to his hear with an enthusiastic, "Hewo!"

I think I'll just have him handle all my phone conversations from now on. Sure, they'll just consist of salutations and names of body parts, but minus the body parts that's pretty much what you'd get with me anyway.

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Well, we've made a little progress with the video camera. He still insists on looking at the viewfinder, but the tunnel vision has faded a bit. Unfortunately, when he's looking at the viewfinder I can't be, so... chopped off face ftw!

Cael shows off his anatomy knowledge and a repeat performance of the crowd pleasing fish impersonation:



I was hoping to get some other animal noises on video, but after the fish he found his ball and, well, you can imagine what happened next.

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Cow - "MMMMMM!"
Cat - "Mmmmm."
Doggie - "Guau, guau!" (Yes, that's Spanish for "Bow wow!" He is a bilingual baby, after all.)
Pig - *scrunches up nose and sniffs*
Sheep - "Mom!"

I tried to get these on video, but when he sees the camera he attacks it like his mom attacks chocolate cake.

We did, however, manage to capture a bit of his fish impression on film:

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The cow says, "Mom!"

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Cael's two favorite things to say need no translation. Whenever he sees someone or talks to someone on the phone (before he presses his favorite button - the red one) he's ready with an enthusiastic "hi!". If something is dropped (or, more likely, thrown), or if Clio is outside and needs let back in he will let me know by saying, "uh oh!" - which is rapidly overtaking "hi" on the frequency of use scale. (He also says, "Mama!" but most of the time he's using it to refer to himself, so I'm pretty sure that doesn't count.)

That's pretty much it as far as clear, distinct words go. His comprehension is awesome. There's very little that he doesn't understand, but he doesn't know how to voice things yet. He's babbling constantly, however, and there are a few "words" that are definitely attempts at communication. The following list can be used to decipher his code:

Da - Dad
Hewo - Hello
Anana - Banana
Bah - Ball
Bah buh - Diaper
Bah bul - Purple
Ahrge - Orange
Chz - Cheese
Shz - Shoes
Ny ny - Night night

He plays with five crayons and every time he picks one up I tell him the name of the color. This has lead to "bah bul" and "ahrge" but he makes absolutely no attempt at red, blue or green.

"Ny, ny" is his newest and my current favorite. Ryan and I tuck him in every night and when we set him in his crib we say "Night, night!" and he has started saying "Ny, ny!" back. Last night he kept repeating it for a while after we left. We were standing outside the door listing to him echo "Ny, ny! Ny, ny!" Very sweet.

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