I forget how quickly Che is growing until we visit friends who haven’t seen him in a while.  For Thanksgiving, we went to visit the Cleveland Croats, a group of Teo’s not-to-distant relatives.  The last time they say Che was over a year ago and they couldn’t get over how much he has grown. While we were there, they also commented on some of the words he would say.  I thought that now would be a good time to document some of Che’s first spoken words, along with translations if needed.  The vocabulary he understands is a lot bigger.

Mama
Tata (Croatian for Dad)
Deda (Croatian for Grandfather which he often confuses with Dada)
Che
Baka (Croatian for Grandmother, usually said while pointing at a photo of his Baka)
Glow
Nana = banana
Bock = book
Ba-lloon
Bubble
Ball
Bock = block
Molk = milk
Tuck = truck
Cookie
Crackah = cracker, apparently he’s a true Bostonian
Yes (very rare, he’s more likely to just nod his head)
No (all the time)
Mo’ = more
Squirrel (new today after feeding the really fat squirrel at Emil’s house)
Sock
Shoe
Ka-ket = Jacket or coat
Nose
Doggy
Duck
Wolf/Woof (We aren’t sure whether he knows the difference between a wolf and a dog, or if he is just making the dog sound, but the W book has a wolf in it and when he sees it he says “Wolf”.)
Bath
Wii (He’s already obsessed.  He likes to play tennis.  He can sometimes serve the ball and really likes to dance to the happy music at the beginning and end of the game.)

I know that he says more words than that, but I can never seem to remember them when I want to.  Every so often he throws out a perfectly pronounced word, like “squirrel” today, and then we don’t hear it again.  He said “diaper” once when I was changing his diaper in Croatia.  However, he doesn’t like diapers that much, and likes having them changed even less, so he hasn’t said it again.  I think he just likes to remind me that he really does know what’s going on by throwing out the odd word here and there.  I’m sure he’ll be saying complete sentences in no time at all.  Until then, I’ll try to pretend he is still my baby.