Growing up

 

 

Nati was so silly and was trying to put the shoes on by himself. He kept falling over so his daddy had to come help! He loved every minute of it!

Speaking of shoes... We took Nati to get his feet measured last week because it seemed like one of his shoes was snug. One foot measured 6 1/2 inches, the other was a size 6. This made me feel better as I always had trouble with one shoe and I felt like I would need a pry bar to put it on his foot. But, the other shoe had slipped on so easily. I was concerned by the difference in size. The lady assured me that this was very normal and that it will continue like that for many years. She said when feet grow they can each grow at different times. Who knew?! I certainly did not!

We had just bought new shoes for him a few months back. The lady told me we could pick any shoe for him but when I went to the wall she said "Not those shoes, those are for the babies" then told me "You need to move to the little boy wall". I stopped dead in my tracks. It was such a hard thing to hear and a hard concept to stomach. Our "little boy" who has not yet been home for a whole year is already in "boy shoes". I swallowed hard and picked up a shoe. The lady said he would need a size seven so that he would have room to grow. We got him some "play" shoes as his grandma had bought him some really cute shoes for Christmas. There have been several days I have looked at Nati and how fast he has grown up but it didn't sink in or hit as hard until we bought his new shoes from the "little boy wall".

What else has he been up to? Nati's new words are: kAR (car), Is it a bawl (ball)?, shoes, ap-ple, "Bye, bye dadty", dog, Gawd (God), as well as some animal noises. His favorite thing is to ask is "Is it a bawl?" I enjoy it as the word "ball" sounds so cute when he says it. I need to record it because it is priceless and I am sure it won't last forever. He has been cracking us up too as his dog noise is the panting noise our dog makes! Our dog is very well behaved and does not bark. When we ask Nati what noise a dog makes, he makes a panting noise! We have been teaching him, or trying to teach him, that dogs bark but he is right our dog does not! He also likes to meow like a cat. It is fun to see him transition and make progress in his language adaptation. For hearing Amharic for most of his life he seems to really be catching on quickly. Everything we say he tries to repeat now!