Green tree

The little man calls cauliflower "white tree" and broccoli "green tree." I taught him that. When he sits down for breakfast, he orders up "waffle jelly always butter microwave." He thinks the toaster and the microwave are both called "microwave" and he thinks butter is called "always butter" because I told him you always butter your waffles, English muffins, and any other thing you toast in a "microwave." He calls milk "milka" and he calls breadsticks dipped in processed cheese dip "dipits." I taught him that too. His first word, more than a year ago, was "nana," which means banana. He calls pears "pera" because "la pera" is Spanish for pear. He read about that in a book called My Food/Mi Comida. When we drink wine out of stemmed glasses his expression brightens and he exclaims, "party time!" He lives to party. When I brew a pot of tea, he demands that we sing "I'm a little teapot" and he does all the gestures, including shimmying when we get "all steamed up." When he wants more he says, "more," and if you reply "more please," he responds, "more please." Sometimes he says, "thank you mama" or "thank you dada," usually without prompting. When he's finished eating he pushes his food away, flashes his hands like the singers in a gospel choir, and declares, "all done! all done! all done!"