Words

We have some words!

A's favorite things to say are:

Ba-by!
He often says baby with a short a (like apple) instead of a long a (like ape).  He kind of yells it in succession "ba-by-ba-by-ba-by!"  We sometimes ask him where the baby is and he points to my belly.  If we're sitting or laying down he will nuzzle his face into my belly.

Ap-a, Apple
A few times he's said apple, like when you offer him an apple and say apple 100 times.  Usually he just says Ap-a.  Sometimes when he is playing alone, usually in the car, he kind of gets a little chorus of what sounds like "Happy apple!" going.  (also kind of a hap-a-ap-a-hap-a-ap-apy)

Uh-oh
This is a favorite.  He knows that uh-oh has an association with things falling.  Our most used application of uh-oh is when he is in a chair, on the bed, etc. He says "uh-oh," waits for me to turn around and drops whatever he is holding on the floor. Not quite the right idea, but we're getting there.

Da
A says Da most of all when "talking on the phone."  He'll take any phone, or really any object (a shoe, a cord, his empty hand, the other night at a friend's he had 1/2 a wooden carrot as a phone) and put it up to his hear and say "Da!"  He also calls his Da by that name sometimes.  Or maybe he just always talks to his Da when he is "on the phone."  Who knows.

Ma
Ma is an easy one, which unfortunately kind of leads to it just being a noise and not meaning anything.

Ma-me
This is a new one!  Sounds like Mommy! Not as frequent as the ma-ma-ma-ma-ma of yesterday, but still multiple times a day!  We're trying to associate his use of Mommy as if he is addressing or looking for me, you know, like you're supposed to try and teach your kids stuff.

I don't think I've officially said this for the record, but we've totally given up on sign language.  There is some pretty good evidence that because we are of the socio-economic status of families that would be inclined to teach our children sign language before word language development is possible, our children will already have stronger language skills than those of other socio-economic groups that do not (because of time, knowledge, skill, etc.) attempt to teach their kids sign language.  (Woah, NERD ALERT!)

In other words, when the kid starts throwing his food on the floor and feeding the dog directly from his hand to her mouth, we know he is "all done."  When his food is gone and he looks for more, occasionally pounding his fists on his tray and yelling, we know he would like "some more please."  Non-verbal communication skills? check.