buti- ful babble

Today was such a day.  Bernard's language is developing rapidly at the moment.  Though he still hasn't said any intelligible words, he is starting to imitate sounds.  His imitations do not bear much resemblance to the sounds he's aiming for, but they often share common elements.  Sometimes he says "Ba" for bye-bye, or "tata".  It's confusing for me, however, because his babble often sounds like real words.  Each day brings us a new set of syllables for experimentation and improvisation; today was brought to us largely by the word "Buti", which means "suck breast" in Vietnamese!  (you can imagine my confusion.)  Whenever he sees something he likes, however, he says something like "Diddy" or "ditty" or "daddy".  Especially animals.  Today he pointed to a cat in the book "Peepo" and said "Diddy" very loudly.  The monkey in Linh's room is definitely called "diddy".
But he is suddenly so much more communicative, bossing me around by moving my hand to do things, asking for things, initiating games.  This evening I was rather surprised as he was in his bath;  I had forgotten to put the non-slip mat in the bath and was holding his thighs as he was kneeling; I was afraid he would slip.  He pulled off my hands and pointed to the bathmat on the wall, then stood up to let me stick it to the bottom of the bath so he could frolic around in non-slip comfort.