Language Development

It is crazy, but all of a sudden, Riley's language development is taking off. Perhaps this was prompted by his teacher's proclamation that he "never talks at school". I think he took offense. Either way, here is the extent of his language skills on his 16-month birthday...

Words he says and seems to understand the meaning of every time:
- more (almost always accompanied by the sign for more)
- car (which sounds much more like "cah" - Boston accent???)
- door (although almost each time he says it, he actually says "door door door")
- pool (which represent any body of water, including pools, oceans, bathtubs, and the dirty tub of water that everyone washes the clay off of their shoes in after playing tennis)
- bird (pronounced "bir" while pointing at sky)
- turtle ("tur-to"; incidentally, his turtle is a wooden turtle that my grandfather on my dad's side contributed to the family Christmas grab bag one year and that I begged my dad to get for me; he loves to feed his turtle, give it drinks from his sippy cut, and pet it)
- Dada (not fair)
- flag (pronounced "dah", but I am certain this means flag because he screams it each and every time we pass a flag and points at the flag)
- hi (loves to say hi to everyone right now)
- shoe (pronounced "sh")
- book ("boo"; loves to pick up his books, say "boo", and then lead you over to the chair in his nursery where he likes to sit on your lap while you "read" the book; I use "read" loosely because most of the time you can only make it through 3 or 4 pages before he starts flipping to the end... and then the beginning... and then the end...)
- ball ("ba"; loves to throw (overhand, which apparently is impressive for his age) to Wrigley; will also crawl into extremely small spaces - under the stools in our kitchen, for example - to try to retrieve balls and will then cry when he can't get back out)
- thank you (this is one of my favorites; he actually uses it in context; he also likes to say it when he thinks you need to thank him - for example, when he finds a big tumbleweed of fur on the floor in our house and gives it to you)
- uh oh (used any time something hits the floor - mostly when he intentionally throws whatever the item is)
- bye (accompanied by a wave or kisses)

Words he can say if prompted:
- Mama (it is killing me that this is not on the first list!!!)
- up

Words he clearly understands but does not say:
- spin (when you say it, he will start grinning and then twirl in circles)
- dance (will start bopping up and down and marching)
- shake it (depending on the context, he will either shake whatever he's holding or dance)
- brush your teeth (no matter where you are in the house, and no matter if it's the right time of day or not, he will stop what he's doing, walk to the bathroom and climb up on his step stool)
- your chair (he will go sit in his green "Riley" chair)
- banana (the kid is like a monkey and will truly put almost the entire banana in his mouth at one time and eat the whole thing)
- kisses (will blow you a kiss - this is one of my favorite things!!!)
- put paci to bed (will pick his pacifier up off the floor and put it in his crib)