Baby makes three...

Being the parents of a 17-month old who doesn't walk and doesn't sleep through the night, Julian and I have to find something to brag about. (I kid, we don't have any trouble finding things to brag about, but hopefully we don't do it too often.)

Anyway, this weekend we decided to do a quick count of all the words that Peter can say and uses. That led us to all the signs, so we documented those too. Thanks to his Latina daycare provider he has quite a good Spanish vocabulary too. I can tell you there is nothing cuter than hearing him say "gracias."

Now admittedly, a couple of these are made-up words, but he uses them so regularly that we have started using them too. We no longer refer to socks in our house, but "boofs." Also, his pronunciation isn't perfect - for "nose" he says "no", for mouth "mao". For "more" it sounds more like "nor". That's a tricky one because sometimes it sounds like "no" but it means yes. He keeps me on my toes this kid!

And some of his signs aren't true ASL. I think his sign for lizard (flipping out the tongue) is one we made up. And sometimes he creates his own variation - like he mixes up and mommy and daddy signs and uses them interchangeably; or for sleep he kind of flops over instead of just resting his head on his hand. Nonetheless, they are understandable to us.

So by our count (as of 2 days ago) he uses about 35 words and 23 signs. We restrained ourselves and didn't include animal sounds in the official word count. The neat thing was that even in the days since we created this list we've heard him add more words - Sunday he said "Cheers" (as he clinked his sippy cup against my glass), yesterday he signed "Horse" and today he called the cat "George."

Anyway, for the curious, and for posterity, here's the list of words he said/signed by his 17-month birthday.

Says
Adios
Agua (Spanish - Water)
Alto (Spanish - Stop)
Ba (Made-up - Phone)
Ball
Bat
Bird
Boof (Made-up - Sock/Shoe)
Book
Bottle
But-but (Made-up - Button)
Bye-bye
Dada
Door
Duck
Ear
Eyes
Gracias (Spanish - Thank you)
Hat
Hi
Hot
Matt (as in his uncle)
Milk
Mama
Moon
More
Mouth
Nana (Banana)
Nana (Hasta Manana - See you tomorrow)
No
Nose
Rooster
There
Up
Wow

Signs
Baby
Ball
Bath
Bird
Book
Butterfly
Car
Cat
Drink
Eat
Fish
Flower
Hat
Horse
Lizard
Mama/Dada (combined sign)
Milk
Moon
More
Sleep
Stars
Toilet
Toothbrush

Posted by at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This blog is getting as bad as my own for lack of updates. But I mustn't let that happen.

What has happened in the last month or so? Well, we went to Mexico. Peter was an amazing traveller! He was such a trouper. He was in a great mood (almost) the whole time. It's amazing how well a child does when your attention can be 100% focussed on them! He thought sand was "ickkkkk" and loved guacamole. He also was a big hit by constantly asking for "agua" (a word he had picked up at daycare.)

Coming back we've had a bit of sleep disruption and Peter is up to his old tricks of being up all the time. He also had a terrible cold and then just when he seemed to be getting better picked up sort of lowgrade fever bug that had him out of commission most of last week. He's back to his old self now, but is still waking a lot.

In Mexico he picked up tonnes of signs and was constantly signing. If he hears us say "baby" he will sign it; he ask to "eat" and for "more." He makes tons of animal signs (and accompanying sound effects too.) He loves "fish" and often thinks that various things behind glass are fish. Like on the plane he looked out the window in the dark at the lights of all the vehicles and looked at me and signed fish! Hey, why not - there are stranger things he's seen behind the glass at the aquarium.

Peter also has lots of new words. A current favourite is "buh-bye". Sometimes he's a little forceful when he uses it - like when Grandma shows up and he shooes dad and me off with an eager "buh-bye!" That and "agua" are her first two-syllable words too, although every now and then I think he's said something more. Apparently he also said "Vamos" at daycare the other day, but I didn't hear it. I've also thought I heard him say "All done," but I'm not sure.

In addition to real words, he has made up words too - socks and shoes are all "boofs" and the phone is always "bah."

Oh and how could I forget his favourite word of all these days - NO! A typical morning:

Me: Peter, time to get your diaper changed.
Peter: No.
M: Want some banana?
P: No.
M We're going to get in the car now and go to Marina's.
P: No.
I attempt to put Peter's hat on him.
P: NO!

Walking - the little guy is STILL not walking at 16.5 months. Looks like he's following in his father's footsteps (talk about your ironic idiomatic expressions) as J didn't walk until 18 months. He took his first steps on Christmas Eve and week or so he can be coaxed into lurching a few steps, but by FAR his primary mode of transport is still crawling. I must admit, I am keen for him to walk because I have this idea that he might stop yelling "Up, up, up" constantly if he's walking. But maybe I'm wrong. And not walking does have its advantages in that he's probably a little easier to catch up to.

Anyway - we are loving the toddler age (although technically he's not really toddling yet!) He just gets cuter and more fun every day, and he is so sweetly affectionate. Makes it much easier to get up in the morning when you're greeted with a big old kiss and hug.

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