Leo likes words. Whether or not he is capable of retaining them in such a way that allows him to use them on command is questionable. His vocabulary hasn’t really expanded much, but maaaaybe he is saying a few new ones on occasion. Our new goal is to get him to say the following:

Down
Outside
Daddy
Anpan-man

As you may have read in previous posts, he’s sort of mastered “up”. He says it regularly, and sort of knows what it means, but the little dude is now saying it when he very obviously wants to go down. Down is not up. He squirms and tries to get out of my grip while saying “up”.

There are a number of words that he probably understands. For example, if I say “home” while I am carrying back home, half of the time he will immediately say “mama”. I am pretty sure he understands “outside”, and says “ahs” in response. I say this when I take him to the park to “step-step” and walk around. When I take him, I pray that nobody engages me in conversation because I am so terribly awkward when I need to talk to strangers.

“Daddy” is one that we are working on, because “mama” usually means Yuki, but occasionally means Eli. He doesn’t really make ‘D’ sounds on purpose though. He’s ok with ‘B/P’ sounds and a few vowels, but the ‘D’ is wily and elusive.

Japan has a character named An-pan Man. An-pan is a bread with sweet red beans in it. “Man” means a male. An-Pan Man is a sweet bread man, sort of like Superman, but baked out of bread. He’s Japan’s version of Sesame Street, and I don’t really know if I like him, because his shtick is to punch and kick the shit out of “Bacteria Man”. C’mon now, is that the conflict resolution that we want to teach kids? Oh, Bacteria Man is once again, in his perpetual state of being a complete douchebag, once again being a douchebag. Rather than explain the situation, why it is wrong and offer a way to solve it, let’s just punch him once again. I watched He-Man growing up, and later found out that he never used his sword on something living, and no punches were shown connecting. Despite being a titan of a pile of muscles, his violence was censored, but in Japan, a bread man punches the ever-loving shit out of a bacteria man on a regular basis.
If I may continue my complaints about Anpan-Man, which are numerous and ridiculous, I’d like to extend to how all bread-people have superpowers and may heal by letting people eat them. They are all Jesus. They offer their body, represented as bread, to heal (of sins?). It’s too much for me. I cannot stand behind this show as material for children. I require Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Blue’s Clues, or….lord have mercy, this show is the best….Bunba Bon

Ideally, I would have Little Leo watching Slam Jams and dancing along to those, but it will probably be a while before he realizes how amazing Slam Jams actually are.