16 months

He just wouldn’t stop dancing the Gang Nam.

A  long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (the galaxy of singlehood), I secretly promised myself that if I were to have children, they will be refined and gracious and classy and smart. They will only listen to classical music and read classic literature, watch only the Discovery and National Geographic on TV, play with toys that would enhance the imagination and creativity and not computer games. Also, I will not embarrass them by forcing them to perform in front of visitors like what my parents did to me. Sing, M (when there was no such thing as a videoke and all we had was a Minus One). Play the piano, M. Do this, do that, show them how talented you are…

Now I “eat my silent secrets”. Everyone just loves seeing the Little Creature shake his booty when he hears the Gang Nam. He couldn’t help himself. When he hears the song, it’s like he’s some wind-up toy; he would shake his head or his hips or bend his knees up and down, up and down, and then preen at his audience. And this mommy is here to egg him on.

He still loves to watch the Sesame Street so he should at least be learning something. He recognizes the characters. He seems to have grown a bit tired of Cookie Monster and Elmo and now his favorites are Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. He saw the Sesame kids dance and twirl so he started twirling as well. His turning and then reeling scares everyone and I’m not sure if that amounts to some sort of learning, but seeing him laugh at his dizziness is just too funny.

He knows how to use the IPad now. Before, he just mimics the adults in swiping the fingers on the screen. Now, he recognizes some of the icons and he knows that those thingies react to his touch. I won’t be surprised if he figures out Temple Run any day now.

His taste in music is not limited to KPop (whew!). He may have grown tired of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” but now he likes to hum to Disney’s “It’s a Small World”, “Elmo’s World”, and the ever dependable Blue Danube. Strauss’ waltzes still have not lost their magic after more than a year. He seems to have an eclectic taste in music. Sometimes, he likes to watch the 1989 computer animated short film by Pixar Knick Knack (so cute!), with Bobby McFerrin’s improvised acapella soundtrack before bedtime.

He’s still not speaking coherent words. He likes to babble and pretend that he’s talking on the cellphone in some secret baby language. He likes to pretend to read books aloud in the same secret baby language. He has grown tired of “eyn” for airplane. His favorite word now is “ish” for fish and he first started saying this when he saw the old battery operated singing salmon that is hanging on the orange post in our old house. He pointed to it and said “Ish! Ish! Ish!” excitedly. Now, everything he points to is “ish”.  Even I am identified as an “ish”.

The other day, while traveling in the van, he started shouting “Ig! Ig!” He was pointing to an ad at the back of a bus with a print of a big cartoon pig. I hope he doesn’t start calling me “ig” as well.