You are sixteen months old, and you have an incredible amount of words for your age. You are almost a little parrot right now. Any word we say to you (especially object nouns), you repeat instantly, and absorb almost as quickly.
I don't think I will even remember all the words you know, in order to document them, but I will try....
Shoes. "shoos!"
You are obsessed with shoes. (My sister tells me, "I wonder why?!"). Your shoes, my shoes, Daddy's shoes. The drawer with your shoes is at your level, and throughout the day you retrieve a shoe or two, and carry them around the house with you. If the shoes are mine, you say, "Shoos! Mommy!" or "Shoos! Daddy!" if they belong to him.
Socks. "ox"
Hat. "at"
Shirt. "shoot"
Diaper change. "poopy"
All clean "ah kee!" (when diaper change is finished)
Potty "pa pee" (what adults do in the bathroom)
Walk "qwalk"
Outside "side" or "shosh"
Keys "shee"
Door "doh"
Bye
Church (pretty close to the correct pronunciation, as you can actually make the "ch" sound)
Home "ohm" (said with a comforting tone)
Car "cah"
Truck "guck"
Motorcycle "ca co" (you know this word because Uncle Daniel has a scooter)
Airplane "ay pay" (we get military fly overs several times a day, so this is a familiar one)
Helicopter "ca co" (sounds the same as motorcycle)
Trampoline "peen" (we have one in the backyard)
Fan "peen" (same as trampoline but to you they are different)
Please "peas"
Thank you "ish oooh"
Be patient "pay shen"
You can't have that "av dat?"
Tree "tee"
Toys
Ball "ba"
Computer "poh poo"
Up
Down "now"
Open
Closed "co"
Help "oap"
Stuck "uck"
No "no no no" said very gently without yelling
Uh oh
Hot "ot"
Cold (co!!!" said while fake shivering)
Okay! "okee"
What are you doing? "noo ing?"
I'm gonna get you! "keech oo"
All right! "ah wy!"
Cool! "coo"
Wake up! "qualk qualk"
Nigh Night
All done "ah na"
Patient "pay ten"
Yogurt "oh go" or "oh gee"
Peas
Apple
Peach
Plum "pum"
Cheese
Egg
Orange
Avocado "wah co"
Beans
Rice "wice"
Nursing "nee nee"
Water "wa wa"
Cupcake (you learned this one at your Aunt Mercy's wedding)
Pickle "ick oh"
Olive "olly"
Animals and their sounds.
Elephant "emo" (because you think the name of an elephant is "animal")
Sheep "baa"
Wolf "ah ooo!!!"
Owl "hoo hoo!"
Chicken or Chicks (sounds like a bad word)
Cow "moo"
Cat (yow)
Dog or Doggie (your bark sound is beyond cuteness)
Donkey "ee ahh"
Monkey "gunk ee" "ee ee ooh ooh"
Parrot "caw caw"
Zebra (I can't recall how you say this one)
Flamingo "mingo" (no idea why, but you love this one)
Book "ook"
Bath (usually "no no no" because you know that after bath comes bed)
Baby "bay bee awwwww"
Hug
High Five "pie"
Mommy or Momma (I think sometimes you also call me "Doy")
Daddy
Grandpapa "papa"
Grandmama "mama"
Uncle Matt "munk"
Piper "papa"
Aunt Esther "auntie"
Isabel "izzy"
Aidan "ana"
Uncle Daniel "an no"
Aunt Mercy "ah mimi"
Stuart "stoos" or "toot"
Tia Priscilla "piecy"
Tita "ta tee" (the literal reverse of the correct pronunciation)
Bob "bah"
Anthony "ant nee"
Eddie
Donna "na na"
You mimic pitches, intonation, and make sound effects. You don't just say words, you copy the pitches and tones that go along with the words. In fact, you are more likely to learn a sound effect than a word. You can make sounds for cars, trucks, airplanes, too hot (blowing/puffing),
When you give hugs, you say, "hug!" then, "awwwww!" with perfect pitch. You nuzzle your head into our neck and squeeze tightly. Lately you've been saying "hug" all day long, and coming over for a tight squeeze. You also will hold a toy of some kind (usually a person or animal or stuffed thing), clutch it to your chest, rock back and forth, and say, "Baby, awwww, baby!" You often want us to pretend the toy is a baby too.
In these pictures, you are hugging the ceramic deer on our back patio planter. It used to belong to your Great Grandma Margy. I like to think she can see you from heaven, and is laughing at you cuddling her yard decor and calling it "baby."
Your favorite things include being outside, nursing, playing with your Daddy's computer (we don't let you play kid games, you just pound on the keys and scroll the mouse). You are quite the talker. You have many words I understand, and many more that I don't.
I know you are a morning person because you start talking the minute you wake up.
Your bath time is at 7pm and you sleep from 8pm until 6, 7, or 8 am, depending on what kind of nap you had the day before. You still wake up thirty minutes into your nap time, but it is easy to soothe you back to sleep, either in the car, baby carrier, nursing, or cuddling. If someone is close to you, you will sleep 2 hours in the afternoon. If you are too tired and fall asleep in the morning, you usually take only a 1 hour nap, then get a bit cranky in the late afternoon and go down to bed a bit early.
You are full of laughter, silliness, fun, energy, and delight. Your unhappiness stems mostly if you are alone, and sometimes if you don't get what you want. You went through a season of screaming/yelling when you didn't get what you wanted. I tried a few things, and really don't know if they helped, or if you just stopped.
You have eight teeth! You eat pretty much whatever we are eating, except desserts. You love fruits the most, and eat almost any veggie, fish, chicken, eggs, beans, rice, peanut butter toast, yogurt, cheese, and most other foods. We are gluten free and eat minimal dairy. Our pediatrician encouraged us that even if you stopped eating certain foods, to keep offering them to you. I had given up on broccoli, which you once liked, because you started refusing it. On his advice, I offered it to you recently, and you ate a cup or more of steamed broccoli!
You adore your Daddy. Most days, the highlight of his day is coming home to see you. He plays with you for an hour or so until dinner time, and is in charge of your bath, and the silly play time that he makes up after bathtime. He has taught you to put crazy things on top of your head like a hat, how to play the "uh oh" game, how to play the "I'm gonna get you" game. He taught you how to sit in the front seat of the car (while it is parked in the driveway), and play you are driving. One day, he left an old computer out on the living room floor. You spent a long time plugging and unplugging things.
In early June, our family went camping. You wanted to walk every where (because the ground was too rough for crawling). But you weren't ready to walk without someone holding your hand. So the entire trip was you saying, "qwalk! qwalk!
When you are determined to have something, you are persistent. You can sound like a broken record, repeating the same word over and over and over and over and over and over again until you are acknowledged. You understand enough now when we tell you, "Not right now," or "you can't have that" ("av dat?" is another phrase). The one I use the most is, "Be patient," ("pay shen") you say.
You are curious and inquisitive, wanting to understand how things work, wanting to discover new things about the world around you. You are thoughtful and observant, perceiving the world around you, often calculating before making a move.
You are fun. You are loved.
We sing songs about Jesus before we go to bed at night, and we pray in the morning that Jesus will help us to demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit that day, that we will be his hands and feet on the earth. I want to get better about being aware of His presence during the day, and teaching you what it means to walk with the awareness of His presence and His plans for us in the little moments.
At your fifteen month check up, you were 32 1/2 inches tall (1/2 inch taller than you were at one year old), and 23 lbs (one pound heavier than you were at one year old). When I see you walking around, you look like such a little boy. In so many ways, you are a baby still too.
