The Word Bank

My Mom meticulously documented my development during the first two years of my life, in my baby book. She even drew (see figures A and B below) a picture of a mouth, with an arrow pointing to each tooth and the date on which the tooth popped-through my gums! (And yes, I was 2 1/2 months old when my first tooth appeared!?!).

Figure A


I made a sorry attempt at a "tooth diagram" for Ava, but kind of gave up, as there were so many teeth coming through at once, and I didn't see a need for pinning her down and torturing her by looking in her mouth (this seems to be the worst punishment for Ava, at least).

Figure B


My Mom also noted in my baby book that I had said 100 words by the time I was 17 months old. So, last night, Doug and I got out our fingers and toes, and decided to count how many words Ava knows. Ava's word bank is a little over 50 words, currently! My favorite is that she calls Elmo "Mel-mo", and she sounds like she's from the Bronx when she says "bear" (it sounds more like "beah"):

1. Airplane
2. Baaa (when we ask what a lamb says)
3. Baby
4. Babydoll
5. Ball
6. Balloon
7. Bath ("Bah". says this repeatedly when we ask if she wants to go to the bath.)
8. Bear (Beah, when she wants her teddy bear)
9. Bee (loves to point out bees. She's not afraid of them, yet).
10. Bible
11. Birdie
12. Block
13. Boo-boo (she insists we kiss her "boo-boos" now).
14. Book (Bah-bah)
15. Bubble
16. Bus (she points to school buses and says "bah!")
17. Bye-bye
18. Car
19. Cow
21. Dad-da (and Daddy)
20. Doggie (dawh)
21. Door
22. Drink
23. Duck
24. Elmo (Melmo. She knows how to laugh like the “Count”–ah, ah, ah!)
25. Eye
26. Fish (??? - she has only said this a handful of times)
27. Flower (???)
28. Grandma
29. Heeeeh (when we ask what noise a horse makes)
30. Hi (she frequently greets many with a big "Hi!!!!")
31. Hot
32. Jesus (sounds like Jay-jee)
33. Mama (and Mommy)
34. MMM! (She LOVES chocolate milk, so we hear this often when she drinks it)
35. Meow (when we ask what a kitty-cat says)
36. Moo (when we ask what noise a cow makes)
37. More ("Moh, Moh" she signs "more" w/her hands when she wants more food)
38. Night-night
39. No
40. Nose
41. Ooooh!!!
42. Ooh-ooh-ooh (when we ask what a monkey says, or when she sees a banana)
43. Pig
44. Please
45. Poo-poo (she came up to me & said "Momma, poo-poo," when she had a dirty diaper.)
46. Pool (says this repeatedly when we ask if she wants to go to the pool.)
47. Purple
48. Quack-quack
49. Shoe
50. Thank you (doesn't use this often, currently)
51. Tree
52. Uh-oh
53. Vroom Vroom (when she sees a car)
54. Waah, waah, waah (when we ask what a baby does)
55. S'at? (what's that?)
56. Woof, woof, woof (when we ask what a doggie says)
57. Yes (yeah, yeah, yeah)

She understands so many words right now, but doesn't say them. I think her vocabulary will be taking off within the next month or so. It's so fun to listen to her sweet little voice saying all of these new words! She LOVES to talk to herself and hold elaborate, animated and colorful conversations.

She also knows a few signs. It's funny; she thinks the sign for "more" is also the sign for "please", which is cute. I guess I can understand why she might have these two mixed up...

I'm sure she knows and says other words, many of which WE don't currently understand. :-) Someday soon we'll crack the code. :-)

With love,
Shelly