Fancy P-I-Z-Z-A? - Ci facciamo una P-I-Z-Z-A?

I often try to get my toddler to repeat words.

Me:
"William, try to say Rosso, Ros-so, Ros-so. How about Giallo, Gial-lo, Gial-lo"

William:
"Pikkeba' Putkaba' Tappete'!
Chabaye'? Neshdua'? Bashemna'?
Elle Elle Ashiba' Visha'is Klai Klai Klai
Fashibi' Memnema'!"

No luck. Once or twice, when I asked him to repeat "William", I heard him say Limiam or something like that but I am not so sure he understood I was making him say his name. Most recently, he has started making up his own words. Below are some recent additions to what I have decided to call the Tronk dictionary - for the new blog readers, Tronk is William's nickname:

Tui' Tui' = Ciui' Ciui' = Animals with Wings and Beak (e.g. sparrows, eagles, penguins)

Papa' = Pappa = Food

Olia = Oliva = Olive

Uiva =Uva = Gapes

Soe = Sole = Sun

Mae = Mare = Sea

Chiglia = Conchiglia = Shell

Gluu' = Iglu' = Igloo

Bimbo/a = Child = Big bird

Etta = Words that end in Etta = Anything

My husband often tells me to stop giving meanings to what William says. After all, he is only 20 months. Plus we are teaching him two languages (English and Italian). I was thinking: perhaps my husband is right. Perhaps at this stage, he is just experimenting with sounds!

Wrong. The boy understands more than we think!

After spending Sunday afternoon at the Boston museum of the JFK library (BTW, I was expecting to see piles of boring documents on display but, as usual, the Americans know how to entertain you! There were promotional banners, medals, all sorts of advertising stuff showing the power of the media in making JFK look sexy compared to Nixon, various rooms revealing episodes of his life, including his wife's beautiful clothes and the coconut shell he carved into, which saved his and his boat crew's life when he was stuck on an island in world war II. Worth a visit!). William was running around the various rooms in his blue, red and white outfit, occasionally posing.

William at the Boston museum of the JFK library

Sleeping? We tried putting him in the stroller. In the old days he would have fallen asleep immediately. Good old days! The boy wanted to finish his visit of the museum, so at the end of it he was exhausted. We were thinking of eating outside. Then we went home to get William to nap.

We hadn't had pizza for a while so we decided to go out for a pizza. When we go to restaurants, I usually spoon feed William a healthy meal I bring with me from home as I don't trust the quality of the average restaurant food in the US. I was not worried to bring William with us because in the last week or so William had been such a great eater - he has got back to eating almost anything! - plus I had William's favorite risotto with me so I had nothing to worry about.

This is what happened.

Me:

Sweetie, here is the risotto, the one you love.

William: [WITH DISGUSTED LOOK ON HIS FACE]
No, no! No, no, no, no!

Me:

What? You don't want to eat risotto? What's going on?

Pizza arrives at the table.

William: [GIGGLING]

Pitta! Pitta! Ehe ehe ehe ehe! [LAMB SOUNDS OF EXCITEMENT]
He, he, he, he [MEANING: GIVE IT TO ME, NOW!]

He heard us say the word "pizza" and, as a result, decided to wait for the treat.

Me:
From now on, we should not say "pizza" in front of the boy

Husband:
Ok, from now on we'll say P-I-Z-Z-A. By the way, fancy an I-C-E C-R-E-A-M with C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E?

Who says that parenthood does not change us?