Growing up

This past month Kenji has learned so many new things, spiritually, physically, and scholastically, and each time he achieves something new I'm filled with so much pride, (the good kind :D) joy, satisfaction, fulfillment, and happiness. My baby boy is changing so much and growing up! I'm :) yet at the same time :( for I will miss not having my "baby boy" anymore.

Time would fail me to tell of all the things he's learned or the cute and funny things he says and does. Nor would my mere writings about some of these things cut it as most of them are only appreciated by sight and hearing. And being that I don't have a camera to capture these cute things on video, I must be content to simply recount them in my minds eye.

Although, I will make mention of one particular thing he learned this week that made me so proud. The other day we had a prayer day. Grandma took them for the first shift and revolved her time with them around Word time. They colored, played Word games, had Word time, etc. His favorite "Word game" was one that involved him rolling/flicking "praise/prayer marbles" into various little holes.

He had a blast doing this. Although grandma was the one actually praying short praise/prayers he would lift his hands after each shot and say "amen." It was so cute and such a wonderful idea to impart the importance of prayer to this little ball lover of mine. :D But that isn't the particular thing I wanted to mention.

Grandma then read to them the MLK "Tola and Tor" and gave them the whole spiel of who they are, what they do, and how they can help them (him) anytime. Grandma then proceeded to make them their very own necklaces with a key hanging from it. Oh my God! You should have seen Kenji's face when I went upstairs to bring them some snack.

He was trying to tell me about all the things he did and learned, but his mind was processing things way too fast and he just couldn't get it out as fast. But he managed to express through words and actions about his very own special key. He proudly showed it to me and said, "mine." Then he pointed his little finger and yelled "no" and put out his hands (just like it shows Tola and Tor in the MLK) and made some sort of a destruction noise.

Grandma explained to me what they had read and what he was acting out. I then went up to him and commended him for listening to Word time and learning so much. I said, "yes, we can always call on Tola and Tor to help us fight the Devil." He said, "yesh, (yes) Tor." When I heard him say "Tor" I was so happy, and once again proud of my little guy.

Oh, and another biggie was he learned 30 new words this past month! Okay, so these things may not mean much to some, but it means a LOT to me and I just had to brag about it. :D It may seem normal, or even a bit late, for a 1 & 10 month old tot to talk so much. But I think he's doing pretty well, seeing as he is learning 2 languages.

Usually when kids are subject to this they are late talkers, but Kenji has been saying many words in both Spanish and English since 1 1/2 years old! Actually his first word was ball at 6 months old. (I'll have to count up all the words he's collectively learned since he started talking). His latest new thing has been putting together small phrases with his words. And in no time he will really take off talking!

I can't wait till that moment, it's going to be too cute and precious! Hopefully by then I'll have a means to record it on camera. Okay, I'll stop talking/bragging about Kenji now and leave you all with some pics. Some are recent ones and others are a bit older. Enjoy!