Grandparents in New York, June 2006

Train arrive, sixteen coaches long... Well that long black train, took my baby and gone...

A Virginia MPP (mega-pic post)

Yugo Love. We all need some.

Yugo slides on baking plastic.
Cool water + cool swim trunks = Yugo rules the wading pool!
Yugo hangs prominently.

On the canal boat cruise near the James River in Richmond, Virginia.
This picture taken seconds before Yugo drenches his mama with a bucket of water.
Who isn't tempted to step in those flowers?
Brave Yugo. Through the sprinkler.
Yugo hopes for rain with his rain stick.

'Nuff said.

A Yuglossary

Yugo understands a lot of things said in English and Japanese, mostly about being ready to eat. He can also make questions himself (eg. " Cookie?") For a current understanding of Yugo's language, see the constantly expanding universe of words he uses below:

Touch - The first word he used repeatedly and understandably.

Cuck, Cucku - 1. Truck, sometimes bus, sometimes car, but mostly reserved for all trucks
2. "Cucku" can also mean trash. When the question "cucku?" gets a positive response, it means Yugo can throw away whatever he is holding (NB - make sure he is not holding your jewelry or your glasses before saying yes...)

Ch-ch - Train, as in Choo-choo, wooh, wooh.

Fsssh - Fish, any fish, including non-fish like whales and dolphins, often used at aquariums and at the beach.

Boru, Bol - Ball, also balloon with a slight difference in intonation

Cookie - Cookie. He picked that word up fast. And uses it often.

Apple - Apple, or in fact any other type of fruit, including bananas. Apple may be a generic term.

Ower - Flower

Push - Used for buttons, light switches.

Zis - "This" Used when Yugo points to something he wants. He also uses the question "Zis is?" to find out what something is and, usually, whether he can put it into his mouth.

Yosh - Japanese expression (meaning "good"?) Yugo uses when climbing stairs or chairs, especially when he has reached a final, precarious position.

Sankyou - Thank you.

Jiji and Baba - Grandpa and Grandma. Yugo sometimes gets these right.

Some tricky ones to interpret:

Papa - "Papa" often means Papa and designates Yugo's dad, but sometimes Yugo points to his mom when saying papa, or uses it when playing peekaboo

Mama - "Mama" usually means mom, but is also used when pointing to Papa, or to Yugo's nose or to someone else's nose.

Yugo, the writer, the return

Wow, two months since Yugo's strong, rising trajectory was last charted on these pages. The energy and activity off his young existence is only one explanation, another is that now Yugo has taken charge of much of the writing of his life. This is clearly evidenced from is growing vocabulary, his one-nap-a-day, his counting and his running through the playground with water balloons and sticks. But wait, there's more!