Eleven Months Old

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Zusilka is a funny boy. He loves his stacking cups. He loves his family. He loves to give kisses with his mouth wide open. But he is scared of a LOT of things. His toy duck that quacks, his "groaning" rods that light up, helium balloons, etc. He named his balloon "Abada." It was a smiley face balloon, so no one is sure if he meant that word for a balloon or a smiley face. But the word stuck until today (the date of this post), well into toddlerhood.

This is Zusha on his very first ride! He loved it, and patted the dinosaur's head to ask for more after the ride was over. At that point we tried to hide the fact that we are feeding him quarters to make him go, and Zusha thought that it was a very kind dino, giving him rides out of the goodness of his heart. Well, that trick was uncovered pretty fast!

In other news, Zusha discovered that he sounds funny if he pinches his nose while he speaks.

And he developed a very amusing routine. Every time he learns a new word, he tries very hard to say it clearly. And he usually succeeds. After he is sure that everyone knows what he is talking about, he abbreviates the word into another one that is 70% shorter than the original. Sometimes he slips up and says the real word. Then he regrets it and tries to cover it up!
One such example is "Shkarpetka" (sock in Yiddish.) He said shkarpetka very clearly in the beginning, but then transformed it into one of the following variations: parkepkep, pepka, khwekhwe.
Another example- he's been saying "Mama" since he just turned 9 months. All of a sudden, my name changed to "Meme" or "Emi."

Zusha with Tatte

Zusha with Babushka