See the title of this post? It’s “First Steps, First Words”! That heavily implies that this post is about Leo’s first words and his first steps….which it is!

So, let’s recap; Leo has been making sounds, which may or may not have meaning. They are taking on a more concrete feel to them, even though his pronunciation is a bit shit. His words and their possible meanings are now;

Mama = Usually means Yuki, may also mean Eli

Ma ma ma = Pretty sure this is him trying to say “banana”

Bup bup = Him trying to say “up”. He usually forgets this word and just sort of grabs at your legs/pants, lift his leg, and start to freak out when he wants to be picked up. He’ll say “bup bup” when prompted with “Do you want to go up, Bud?” When he starts to freak out, he says “bup bup bup bup bup bup!!” and gets a look in his eyes like he is a prized chef watching numerous fires spring up in his kitchen.

Bye bye = Right now, it is mostly just a sound without meaning, but he knows to wave when he says it.

Ha = Most likely “hi”, but it is really just him yelling.

Bahl bahl = Ball. His favorite toys are 4 plastic balls that Yuki got him at the 100 yen store. He seriously knows what the word means and represents. It’s weird how much he likes the balls.

Bu = Book. He seems to enjoy books, and have some favorites. He no longer just wants to rip them apart.

Tih = He says this when he points. I think it’s him trying to say “touch”, which is one of the words we use quite frequently.

Akun = Not sure yet, but he says this one a lot now.

Regarding his steps! He can only stand up when he is holding something. You are probably thinking “no s***, Eli. Babies need support to stand”, to which I would reply “Hey now, there’s no need for profanities. C’mon.”, and you would probably ask me “Why didn’t you censor “shit”? Oh wait, you missed it that time. What’s going on?”, and I would calmly explain “I have no idea why I haven’t deleted this paragraph.”
Like I said, he can only stand when he is holding something. He needs to have a toy or something in his hands in order to stand. Today, while holding onto a juice box that I bought for Yuki, he took little teeny steps – 7 in total – towards us. It was pretty surprising, because up until this point, he never really took any sort of steps on his own, despite being an absolute nutter when it came to running around while holding onto our fingers.

That’s where he’s at! I hope you enjoyed this expertly-written piece.