I am a lion hear me roar

I have a boy, bus, he's almost fifteen months old and lovely. He did all of his firsts quite early so far. He was turning by four months, sitting by six and standing up holding onto things at 7 months. He started talking saying mamma and daddy and titta (Swedish for look) and dedans (French for inside) all in that order. Then he learned to roar like a lion.

Bus, like most other kids, love animals. He could spend a whole day just looking through his books with pictures of animals. He loves books too especially if there are animals inside. He can do most of the animal sounds, like meow like a cat, woof like a dog, neigh like a horse and all other common animal sounds, but that's not all. No that's not all. He can also roar like a lion, sound like an elephant, like a fish, like a bunny and like a gorilla. It's quite impressive, even though some less enthusiastic and child loving people may say the sounds are all very similar, but there is a downside. Ever since the animal sounds started really take off my lovely son has stopped the talking. He no longer says titta or dedans or any of the other things he used to say. He still occasionally say mamma or mat (food in Swedish) or daddy but nothing else.

Maybe it's just the age he's at right now but I think he actually enjoy me saying no to him. He likes it when I shake my head, he thinks it's funny, so he does things that he knows I will say no to just so I'll shake my head. He even shakes his head too and laugh and when he laughs you can't be angry with him. How do I get him to understand no and not think it's funny?

He started spending his mornings with his daddy this week since I had to start working again. I think it's good for both of them, so my hubby will have a more active role in the everyday care taking of bus and so that bus will get to know his daddy and to learn some more French. I miss him though. I miss both of them. Not only do I have to work so I can't hang out with bus all day but my hubby works when I'm not working so I don't get to see him very much. It's a big change and I'm not sure I like it.

Enough whining and back to the issue at hand, my son turning into a lion. Hubby had this theory about the lack of words and the amount of animal sounds. He recons it's because we're raising bus tri-lingual, Swedish, French and English, so the only things that are the same no matter what language is the animal sounds. So by bus using animal sounds everyone understands him and everyone speaks the same. It's an interesting theory, but I'm not sure I believe it. bus is surely not the first kid to be raised tri-lingual so if others have managed before I'm sure he will too, he's a clever boy.

A couple of weeks ago we did this study at the UQAM (Université de Québec á Montréal) where bus had to listen to Russian to see how he responded to the language and if he could pick up on certain structures in the language after only hearing it for ten minutes. It was interesting even though bus wasn't too cooperative, I had to wrestle with him to keep him in the chair he was supposed to sit in. We're going to get a copy of the results of the study in a year or so.

Soon it's Halloween, guess what bus will be dressed up as!
I am a lion, hear me roar!