¡Aplausos!
In honor of my nephew’s upcoming birthday, here’s one from just before his very first birthday. When Aglet was just a tiny person, he went to a bilingual day care, and for a while picked up almost as many Spanish words as English ones. Then we, his family, would learn the Spanish words from him (sometimes with the help of a bilingual dictionary). So our interactions with him became a bit bilingual too. When he performed any wondrous feat, such as that of walking (pictured here!), we would express our admiration by crying, ¡Aplausos!
That’s Aglet’s mother cheering for him on the left (he was not really half her height at age one), and I think that’s supposed to be a sofa on the right. I think I was trying to depict his walking to the one from the other. That’s a big deal! That definitely gets an ¡Aplausos!
I enjoyed your Jonah illustrations in 2004 and just “re-found” your work today. Love this series on your niecephew too–you have a fantastic eye for irony and relatable humor. All the best!
Aw, thanks. That’s great to hear.