Monday, December 30, 2002

Notes On Rachel's Words

We don't really remember for sure what Rachel's first word was. Certainly, she was saying various things by her first birthday, and even a couple of months before that. For instance, when we were at Lake Britton last year she learned to say 'buh' for bird. She also started signing some even before that, mainly 'more' (put all 5 fingers of each hand together, and then touch the two sets of fingers together) and 'finished' (hands in front, palms forward, twist each hand back and forth opposite to each other). Some of the more memorable words she could use by her first birthday.

  • boooo-rrrrrIES: berries, particularly blueberries
  • daah-ee: daddy
  • nooooo: no, of course, but it was always VERY cute because of the length
  • DOH: toast
  • mama: well... Mommy
  • mao/rao: started using this spontaneously when she saw a cat
In the couple of months after her first birthday, she picked up a lot more, including:

  • tigu: Tigger
  • pabu: Pacifier
  • boo: book
  • emmees: lemons (she particularly used this with reference to the drawing my cousin Elisabeth gave me (which she drew) of two lemons still on a tree
  • apu: apple
  • dee-doo: thank you
We stopped keeping track of the words she could use a few weeks ago, because she was coming up with them too fast and it is too hard to remember them when we have time to make notes. And forget about all the words she knows! We've been getting a child development newsletter every week or so from babycenter.com and one of the things they often talk about is how many words kids can use and how many words they can string together into sentences. The newsletters have been saying that typical children her age should use a few 2-word sentences, but Rachel's already used at least one with NINE! And they say she should have 10-15 words they can use, and she's pushing 100 now.

It's really too bad I'm not a proud father, isn't it?

No comments: