"Kaya!" (eighteen months old)

Now that Samuel's a year and a half old, he talks—he’s been warming up to it for a few months now, but over the past few weeks he's started to babble more fluently, say more recognizable words, and imitate every sound he hears (birds chirping, car horns beeping, Daddy snoring, etc.).

Most of Samuel’s words can be identified as being English, Spanish, or something in between. (To ask for a drink, he originally said “wawa,” which would be something between “water” and “agua”; now he’s opted for a clear Spanish “agua” pronunciation.) However, he has a couple of words he seems to have come up with on his own. The most popular at the moment is “kaya” (pronounced like “kayak” without the final k.) It’s used to mean motorcycle, bicycle, or tricycle, and is almost always said with great enthusiasm, because those are things Samuel just can’t get enough of.

So when Saúl took Sam with him to the mechanic's shop, where there were a variety of vehicles waiting for service, it was a very good day for our son. Here are some of the day’s experiences:

"Kaya!"

"Bah!" (For Samuel, this word is for buses or trucks.)

"Cah!" (car)

Driving's a tough job...

...but somebody's gotta do it!

So why “kaya”? I assume Samuel hears the hard c sound at the end of those three words ("motorcycle") and the i sound at the beginning of “bicycle,” and “tricycle”; he simply pronounces them in inverted order. Maybe the similarity in sounds, as well as the similarities in appearance, led him to the conclusion that these three belong to the same category of vehicles. Whatever the case may be, he’s made that word his own and pronounces it with varying degrees of enthusiasm (to mean, “I saw a kaya!”) or urgency (to mean, “I want to touch that kaya!”) whenever we go out on the street. He also uses it as a question—“Kaya?”—to confirm whether the sound he just heard through the window was a motorcycle going by. So kaya functions as both a noun and a verb, and can be used to form statements, exclamations, and questions.

I guess what I’m trying to get at in this blog entry is how amazing it is that at a certain age, without taking classes or having to study grammar and vocabulary, young children learn a language (in Samuel’s case, two languages). By listening and imitating, by making guesses about meaning and then trying them out, Sam’s taking part in a quiet miracle, like most children around the eighteen-month mark: he’s learning to use words to describe and affect the world around him.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:14)

Rub-a-dub-dub... (seventeen months old)

...two kids in a tub!

--and a dog thrown into the mix, just for kicks: check out this link for a YouTube flick. :-)

Yacuiba (sixteen months old)

Shortly after Samuel hit his sixteen-month mark, the three of us traveled to Saúl's hometown, Yacuiba, to spend the holidays (and take out a new visa for me at the Argentine border nearby; in order to remain legal in Bolivia, I had to leave the country and apply for a new visa at Bolivian Immigration).

We've had more than our share of adventures since we arrived. Some of them, I'd rather forget--such as losing (and later recovering, thank God) my passport and Samuel's on our way to the Immigration office. But here are some experiences we will enjoy looking back on:

• Getting Samuel in touch with his chaqueño heritage

Yacuiba is part of the Bolivian Chaco--a region of the country characterized by grasslands, farming and cattle-raising (accompanied by a steady diet of red meat and red wine), and a culture that prides itself on its people's friendliness and shoot-from-the-hip sincerity.

Here's Sam with his grandma Gloria, modeling a style of hat traditionally worn by chaqueño cattlemen on formal occasions; below you'll see him sitting on a bombo drum, which is an indispensable element of chaqueño folk music. (Click here to view a music video with some of the sights and sounds of the Chaco. If you'd like to see some typical folk dancing, click here to see the light-stepping cueca and here for the imposing chacarera.)

• Spending time with with some of Saúl's relatives and childhood friends

Here's the younger generation: Samuel with Kevin, the son of Saúl's neighborhood friend Alejandro. Saúl, Samuel, and I attended Kevin's first birthday party a few days after we arrived in Yacuiba. On the table in the picture above are Cars-themed party favors and the birthday cake. In the picture below, the kids are entertained by wisecracking clowns; to the right of Samuel are Marcelo and Mauricio, the sons of Saúl's cousin Alejandra.

• Experiencing the wonder of Christmas through our toddler's eyes

As usual, the best Kodak moments happen without us catching them on film. I wish we could have captured the look of awe on Sam's face on Christmas Eve when he entered from a dark street into a patio strung with Christmas lights, garlands, and tinsel that reflected the light from the tiny bulbs all around. Or the way he watched the grown-ups dance later on, after the traditional midnight meal (yes, we all stayed up late that night!), and then copied their moves, bouncing and twirling to the music in his own corner of the dance floor.

As a Christmas postcard, the best we have to offer you is this blurry picture of Sam and me, taken on the 26th at the house of other family friends--along with our prayers that you were able to experience the wonder of Christ's birth in your own way, along with your family and friends. Merry Christmas, and best wishes for a blessed year 2o11!

Siblings for Samuel

No, it's not what you may be thinking (I'm not pregnant!)--you could call these "instant siblings," or maybe "honorary siblings." It all started when Saúl and I discovered we had to look for a new place to live. (To make a short story even shorter, the owners of the house we'd been living in had received a more lucrative offer and asked if we'd be willing to move. Since our agreement with them was almost up anyway, we agreed.)

The three "hermanitos," Josías, Alison, and Samuel, in the patio at our new house

We went through all the usual house-hunting steps: we asked around, scanned and circled for-rent ads in the classifieds, made phone calls and visits; but we soon discovered there were few viable options in our price range. Santa Cruz is going through an economic boom these days, and rental prices have boomed as well. After several days of intensive searching we found a small apartment in a different part of the city whose rent we figured we could manage to cover, at least until we found a more permanent situation...but somehow I didn't feel at peace with the decision. The night before we had planned to sign the rental agreement, I asked Saúl to consider an offer our friends Yovana and Martín had made some weeks back--an offer to share their house with them and live in their spare room--and he agreed.

Alison and Sam are learning to share food and toys--something some of us grown-ups still have a hard time with, come to think of it.

As you can probably imagine, it took some serious downsizing to move from a two-bedroom house to a single bedroom, but by God's grace we managed to sell all of our large furniture and appliances the same day we moved, without even having to advertise; our friends in our old neighborhood and some of their relatives were our best customers.

So now we live with our good friends Martín and Yovana, and (this is where the siblings part comes in) with their two children, Josías (age six) and Alison (eighteen months old). This was quite a change in the social life of our only child! As you might guess, it wasn't all smooth sailing--on the plus side, Sam's gained camraderie and a wider selection of toys; on the minus side, his new comrades often want to play with the same toys he does, and vice versa. New parenting phrases for Saúl and me have included "No, honey, that's Alison's cup--that one is yours"; "Can you share, please?"; "No hitting!"--oh, and "Be GENTLE with the doggie!" (Besides Josías and Alison, Samuel's new playmates include a puppy named Doki; we're sometimes worried that Samuel, in his excitement, will crush poor Doki out of pure affection!)

Three kids and a dog--it's a recipe for fun and, occasionally, tears--see the ending of this video for evidence of the latter. :-(

All in all, though, I'm pleased with our move, especially because of the advantages for Samuel. He is indeed learning to share--last Sunday in the toddler church school class, he voluntarily handed crayon after crayon to Hana, one of his little classmates. He's also learning to become more independent by imitating his older "siblings"; since our move to their house just a couple of weeks ago, Samuel has started to take more initiative in spoon-feeding himself, for example, and has developed a faster running walk (which he needs if he expects to keep up with the other two!). Having watched Alison climb and clamber over the living room furniture seems to be preparing Samuel to climb too. Last night we took him to a playground, and after watching an older boy climb up on some playground equipment using his hands and feet; immediately Samuel stooped down and did the same thing, and he managed to make it almost on his own; Saúl was right behind him the whole time, ready to rescue Samuel if he fell, but he ended up not needing to be steadied at all. (I wished we'd caught that on video!)

I guess the moral of the story is yet another reminder (because we so quickly forget, don't we?) that God uses all things for good for those who love Him. Moving was not our idea, but God had a greater purpose, and Samuel's new "siblings" are helping us discover it.

Dancing (fifteen months old)

Samuel and I enjoyed a recent visit to Buenavista, a traditional small town near the city of Santa Cruz.

If you've been following this blog, you may remember Samuel waving his arms to the music when he was ten months old. Let me tell you, he now has a full-body dance routine.

So here's Samuel dancing to band music we heard during a visit to Buenavista, a small town about two hours' drive from Santa Cruz--click here to watch his routine. If it reminds you a little of the "funky chicken" dance, it's no coincidence: Samuel learned the arm-flapping and tail-waving moves during MCC Bolivia's annual retreat, which he and I attended at the end of October. (I did Spanish-to-English simultaneous interpreting during the sessions, and Samuel was cared for by Yovana, his beloved babysitter.) One afternoon the babysitters taught the children a dance routine which they presented at that evening's talent show; the music they danced to tells kids to praise God like the ducklings do, by waving their wings and moving their tails.

Samuel's favorite activity at the retreat, aside from dancing: splashing in the pool and playing "sea monster" with the other young kids.

Smooch (fourteen months old)

A few days before he turned fourteen months old, Samuel went with Saúl and me to the birthday party of the son of our friends Yovana and Martín. Josías was turning six, but this video clip features his little sister, Alison, who is about four months older than Samuel. She's a pretty intrepid little girl, and for some reason she loves to give Samuel big kisses--which he's not quite sure how to take, as you'll see in the video. This isn't the first time it's happened (Alison's parents jokingly now call us Alison's suegros, which means "in-laws"), but this time Saúl managed to film the kiss on his cell phone.

Shades

Just for fun, here are a couple of pictures that show Samuel striking a pose in sunglasses. What music videos could he be posing for?

"The Gambler," by Kenny Rogers?

Anything by Puff Daddy?

Walking (thirteen months old)

It's hard to say exactly when Samuel took his official "first steps"--he'd been walking holding onto someone's finger since he was ten months old, but three days after his birthday he decided he was ready to go solo. Saúl and his mom and I were sitting in our living room and Samuel was standing with us, holding onto a chair, when he suddenly took off on his own. He toddled over to some built-in cabinets about five feet away, then casually turned around as if to check on his progress. I think we were a lot more impressed with Samuel's feat than he was!

I took this video footage (click here to view it) about three weeks later, on a rare cool day here in Santa Cruz, walking on the driveway with his dad and me. I guess it's nothing unusual--babies learn to walk as a normal part of their development--but that doesn't keep it from being a miracle: this tiny human being who was once inside of me, then spent months being powerless to do almost anything on his own, is now capable of walking out the front door and facing the wide world. Scary, yes! But also quite amazing.