It would come as no surprise to any of you that the Yowlet's first word was
"meow". Well, pronounced "mee-yao" to be precise. Cary has been babbling
away for at least six months, and you can have long an interesting
conversations with him, but up until now, we haven't been able to associate
any particular sounds with any particular meanings.

But he's been repeating"Mee-yao" alot and pointed and bouncing wildly into
the kitchen.

It took us a while, but we eventually figured out that "Mee-yao" meant
"food" or "I'm hungry" or something along those lines.

So, like good little parents, we have been giving him something to eat each
time he's said "Mee-yao", and it seems to have worked.

Awwwww. His first official word. A cat sound. Typical.

We were driving home from a friends' place a few nights ago, and stopped in
at Hungry Jack's drive though (Hungry Jacks is the Australian version of
Burger King) to get us something for the ride home. We *thought* that Cary
had had his fill of biscuits, chips and other rubbish our friends had fed
him, but apprantly not. He started yelling "Mee-yao" from the back seat just
as soon as we had opened the bag and continued with the "Mee-yao" every time
he'd managed to devour yet another chicken nugget or fry.

Thats the weird thing about kids, some days they don't want anything to eat
and you are convinced they are going to starve to death, the next they
develop hollow legs and devour all that is put in front of them and beg for
more. Just like cats really. And obviously, it was Hollow Legs day.

The food ran out, but Cary's Mee-Yao continued loudly from the back seat. Or
perhaps he wasn't hungry but was enjoying practicing his new lanaguage
skills. Either way, Joel and I were subjected to a barrage of continued
"Mee-Yao" at the top of Cary's lungs for the rest of the drive home - a
solid thirty minutes where we both were regretting the fact we had been
looking forward to Cary finally learning to speak in a a language we could
all understand.

"Mee-Yao, mee-yao, mee-yao". Repeat it over and over and over. Say it
quickly and loudly. Say it with feeling and force. Say it with feeling, with
intent. Say it till it just stops making sense . Say "Mee-Yao" over and over
so it all just becomes one giant word of forever repeating syllables that
you can't escape from. Say it like a bloody minded cat or toddler until it
gets through to your shtoopid adult hoomin brain.

Eventually you might cotton on to what is actually being said:

Yummy yummy yummy yummy yummy

I kid you not (try it).

Its good to know my son is growing up bi-lingual.

Yowie