toini's new word

he has quite a collection to his name: mama/papa (used in non-discriminatory fashion to indicate any and/or all of his parents); MAMA! (for 'nursing'); baba (for isabelle); bm (for 'boom', clear arabic influence here), teen (for 'teen' and 'steen', might have been confusing but he points as he names, which helps), tok (for 'stok' and 'tak', almost synonymous anyway), br (for 'brood'), mma (for 'oma'), da (for 'daar'), maauw (for 'poes'), ba (for 'bal' and 'maan', i am not sure he knows these are two separate items. come to think of it, i am not sure i know they are two separate items...) and ei (for 'ei').

(not to mention the emphatic pursed-lipped triple-chinned head-shaking, which means 'no')

these words have been dripping in, one by one, on the thread of hours, almost unnoticed, slowly but inexorably eclipsing the days of 'tsss'.

(NOTE for the uninformed reader: from the age of six months until approximately eighteen months, toini's vocabulary consisted of a single morpheme, 'tsss', which indicated 'complete and utter satisfaction with the state of the world').

in fact, now i think of it, there hasn't been any 'tsss'ing around these parts in a long long time, and i had no idea how much i was missing it.

until this past weekend. when toini started saying 'ja'. and it is ridiculous and unspeakable, this insane joy that pierces me through every time he says it (ridiculous and unspeakable but strongly reminiscent of the 'tsss' era). what is that anyway? the need for positive feedback? the sheer life-affirmingnicity of it? the softness in his voice? the gentle lilt? i have no clue, but i do know that it is one of the great little raptures in life, to wake up every morning knowing that soon, very soon, he will say it again.

'Toini, wil je een banaan?' 'ja'; 'Toini, wil je bij mama op schoot?' 'ja'; 'Toini, zullen we een boekje lezen?' 'ja', 'Toini, ga je mee?' 'ja'

i'm telling you, it's almost as good as 'tssss!'.