William Update

William has made incredible strides in his communication skills since we’ve been in Israel. I wonder if it’s because he is so often confronted by people he can’t understand. The other children at the park try to tell him things and it’s in Hebrew. When we drive people to church, they speak to each other and to him in Russian. I wonder if he’ll be a good language learner when he’s older as a result.

So, he learned to say yellow (yeh-yoh). Then, anything he really liked became “yeh-yoh.” His favorite blanket, the blue doggie one, is his “yeh-yoh.” A bottle of milk is the “yeh-yoh.” And he uses complete sentences to talk about these things. “I want de yeh-yoh.” This means either the blanket or a bottle of milk. Luckily, he still signs milk a lot to help us distinguish between the two. When he signs milk without specifying yellow, I sometimes bring him a bottle of water. He doesn’t like that and will often sign milk while saying “no water—I want de yeh-yoh.” I can’t refuse him after that! It’s just too cute.

Another thing he says a lot is “I see ____.” He’ll put in whatever he sees. Rock and water are his most frequent ones. All busses are “yeh-yoh bus,” no matter their real color (most of them here are green). And he likes to put locations on the end of his statements. “I see water down.” “Beep beep up” means he sees a car up the hill or going up.

He likes to watch TV and asks for permission by saying “I want to watch.” I always ask him to specify, but he generally means Thomas the Train. Eventually he’ll say “I want to watch the choo-choo.” Then, I generally give in.

He has also expanded his vocabulary for answering questions. He not only says “ya,” but he also sometimes says a strong “yes.” And if he has to think about it he says “uh ya.” And he is better at saying no when he means no instead of just ignoring the question.

Oh, and he turned 2 on Sunday. Hooray! We had the Bowden’s over for pizza, brownies and ice cream. I burned the brownies. We don’t have any sort of timer and the oven temperatures are Celsius, so I just kind of guess where the dial should be when I bake things. I checked them when they were still soft and jiggly, but then forgot to go back until the edges were black and crisp. Luckily the middle was just a little overcooked (meaning no longer gooey). They were fine with ice cream.

William got a new train set on a wooden track (a small one we can easily take back home). I think that’s the only thing I bought him. The rest of the things we gave him were from the gift back Rachel and Allison put together for our flights. He slept so much on the airplanes, we didn’t have to have gifts to amuse him. So, he got crayons and a coloring book. He got a board book and a toy car. The Bowden’s gave him a playmobile car and driver. He loves it and won’t let it out of his sight. We measured him that afternoon and found him to be about 3 feet 2 ½ inches. So, he’s going to be tall!