Hello friends
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We've been terrible about updating this page, but Mischa has had a fun few months of racing through toddler development. Things have been very busy with several visits to and from family & friends, as well as a short mini-adventure to San Francisco over Labor Day weekend. Meanwhile, 19-21 months consisted mostly of a verbal explosion -- Mischa went from using only a few common simple words (up, cup, mama, thank you), to suddenly learning the words for almost everything around him, at breakneck speed. He's now at the stage that he repeats almost everything he hears (which means we need to be a little more careful - as evidenced by the day he ran around shouting "dammit!" with unbridled glee).
Of course only certain words stick -- but he's been absorbing new words so fast that I figured I should take a few minutes to document where he's at right now, since such a feat would soon become impossible. At first I figured that he was probably using close to 200 words at this point. But when I did a quick brainstorm to count them up, he's actually at closer to 300. Neat. And the new development of just the past few weeks is that he's starting to turn these words into actual basic sentences. (first few were things like: "Mama go to the potty," "Dada's at work," "Foggy open(ed) the door," (when the kitten woke him up from his nap) and "Mama, throw the ball!"
His favorite words at the moment: spatula, crocodile (he's really into 3-syllable words right now), music (which he pronounces "numic!"), thank you (an early one but he says it 100 times a day), 'scuse me, pancakes, yogurt, and vacuum.
I've only counted here words that he says on his own, with clear meaning -- I haven't included words that he repeats only when we say them, or that he seems to use randomly. (I may likely be missing a whole set of words that he says at childcare that we don't witness -- we have no idea how many that would be). His pronunciation skills vary, of course. A few of his words need the trained ear of a parent to recognize them, even though he uses that same funny word very consistently. So those where his pronunciation, while consistent, is rather far off of the real word, I've indicated w/ asterisks (examples are "ninnen" for chicken and "lily" for kitty). The others he says basically right.
Here's what we could think of so far.
Words Mischa uses as of 9/19/09 (almost 22 months old):
Food & eating: pancakes, waffles, toast, french toast, chicken* (refers to vegetarian chicken), tofu,* rice, butter, peanut butter*, cream cheese*, cheese, bread, milk, water, juice, yogurt, applesauce, oatmeal, cereal, eggs, pizza, cracker, bar, cookie, cake, cupcake, fruit, raisin, potatoes, tomatoes,* apple, banana, burger (boca burger), ketchup, syrup, broccoli (refuses to eat it but loves to say it), avocado (same, sadly), peas, spoon, knife, fork,* spatula, plate, bowl, cup, napkin, bib, bottle, straw, top (e.g. the top to a sippy cup or a pot), yummy, bite, sip, cooking, cut it up, mix it up.*
Locomotion: airplane*, airport, helicopter, car (mama's car, dada's car), beep beep, seat belt, bus, school bus, train, choo choo, truck, motorcycle, boat, go.
Locations: park, lake, up, down, out, upstairs, downstairs, home, house, potty, outside, inside, store, work, grass.
People & Names: mama, mommy (he's been experimenting with this one after hearing his 8-year old cousin say it a lot. but usually he says mamA, accented as if he were a french kid), dada, Nana, Erin, Sage, Jay, Grandma, Grandpa, Max, Liam, Kelly, Michael, Naima, Oscar, Aiden, Kama, baby, Baby Jack, Doug, John, Lola & Foggy (our cats), Spiderman (tries to sing the song when he wears the shirt), Popeye (just learned the beginning to this song), elmo, grover, bowwow (shane's childhood stuffed dog Sherriff Bowwow), Wall-E, EVE*, big bird, spongebob (has never seen the show but has a spongebob cup he is obsessed with), the possessive form of anyone's name (mama's glasses, dada's car, etc).
Animals & their sounds: kitty,* cat, meow meow, doggy, squirrel, tiger, rrawrr, elephant,* bird, giraffe, bear, chicken, peep peep, cow, moo, monkey, ooh ooh ooh (monkey sounds), goose, duck, quack quack, pig, oink, fish, ant, mouse, crocodile,* dinosaur,* bumble bee.
Recreation & toys: book, music,* piano, video, ball, baseball, bat, mitt, color, crayon, pen, camera, computer*, shovel, box, rocks, blocks, farm, swing, slide.
Adjectives: hot, cold*, big, small, empty, messy, dirty, yucky, broken, windy, wet, red, black, blue, grey, yellow.
Activities: eat, chew, walk, run, brush teeth, brush hair, kiss, hug, open, close, jump, dancing, banging (which he learned by hearing us saying numerous times "no banging"), dropped it, touch it, poop, "throw the ball!", "he's crying."
Body Parts: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, head, forehead, hair, chin, cheek, teeth, toes, butt!, pee-pee, belly, belly button, arms, hands, legs, booboo, owie, snip (refers to cutting finger or toenails).
Clothing & Accessories: shoes, socks,* pants, shirt, pajamas, hoodie, coat, hat, glasses,* snap, button, zip, carrier, bag, tattoo.
Around the house: room, bed, pillow, blanket, kitchen, oven, wash dishes, bath, bubbles, soap, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, diaper, cream, wipes, paper (referring to toilet paper or some to draw on), eyedrops, medicine, mirror, towel, window, door, keys, knock knock, "come in!", "coming!", gate, vacuum, high chair, chair, table, blue chair (booster seat), light, fan, suitcase.
Auxiliary & exclamations: the, a, too (as in "too big"), more, again, thank you!, here you go, please, help please, stuck! excuse me!, bless you, shh, "clean up clean up"*, uh-oh, all gone, all done, oops, hi, bye, bye-bye, ok, no, on, off, again, night night.
Other words: rain, sky
Numbers: 1, 2, 3, 8, 9
Letters (actual recognition): B!
Pieces of the alphabet he sings (but without recognition of these letters): "QRS, TUV," and "now i know my..." (he sings it: "qrs, tuv, qrs, tuv, now i know my know i know," [then insert random lyric here]. last time it was "clean up clean up kelly kelly kelly").
Songs he sings (mostly just pieces at a time -- sometimes w/ a decent attempt at the real lyrics, sometimes w/ his own lyrics about ketchup and kitties or pancakes and airplanes): frere jacques, twinkle twinkle/ABCs, row row row your boat, spiderman theme, popeye theme (only because he has shirts w/ both these characters)
And now, for some photos... I'm just going to post a bunch as a mish-mash now so as not to delay this any further... I'll update them with actual context/explanations later.
