Oliver's Growing Vocabulary

It's official; Oliver now can say four words. In addition to "more," "Mum," and "Dah," Oliver now says, "Shhhh," for "shoe." "Shoe" came close to being his first word. Weeks ago, I'd begun saying, "Shoe!" every time I'd put mine or his on. He started repeating "Shhh" one day, but by the next day, he'd forgotten how to do it. Now, he's eager to say, "Shh!" every time he sees a shoe. He calls his socks "Shh," too.

Oliver understands a much longer list of words. He knows and (usually) listens to, "No!" He also understands the words microwave, fan, stairs, up, down, bye-bye, high five, stack (as in, "stack these toys"), good boy, good night sleep tight, milk, Cheerios, kiss, nose, piggies (toes), boop (poop), potty (which he learned yesterday), clean, peek-a-boo, monkey, and Eskimo (we say "Eskimo" for "Eskimo kiss").

Babble

Oliver's always been quite a babbler, but, lately, he's started really stringing different syllables together. He constantly says nonsense words like, "Manamba," and "Gabadakuh." And, of course, he accidentally says real words, too, like "boy" and "hi."

Today, I was trying to play ball with him again (he's not a fan), and he babbled, "bah." I tried to encourage him to keep saying it and showed him his ball. "That's right! Ball!" He would repeat "bah" to both me and Andrew, but, to him, it was just a fun game of repeating sounds. He wasn't actually saying "bah" referring to the ball. He does that with "mama," too. One day, he'll learn these sounds have real meaning to us!

"Talk" Play Continues

I really love how responsive Oliver is, and it never ceases to amaze me. Andrew or I will pat our hand against the table, and Oliver pats back. One of us clicks our tongue at him, and he clicks back. He really is mastering the art of repeating our sounds and actions back to us, and so I feel confident he understands we can communicate with each other.

I really look forward to the day he can talk to us and tell us how he feels. I decided it has to be hard for a child to verbalize his feelings, even when he can talk, so I've been practicing with Oliver. When he's upset, I verbalize it for him: "You're mad because Mom took the coaster away. You're mad, and you're sad because you don't have the coaster." I think that will make it easier for him to understand his feelings one day. I hope that will lead to him telling us how he feels as opposed to showing us through tantrums. I'll let you know how that goes!

We're Talking

I think Oliver has reached a major milestone to start talking: He now responds to us verbally.

It began with clicking. He was done nursing and started to click his tongue. I clicked back at him, and he clicked back. This went on for about 5 minutes. Andrew got home, and I showed him. The following morning, they had a clicking conversation, too.

Then came the piggy faces. Oliver made a funny face at me, where he scrunched up his face and kind of snorted. It looked just like a piggy face. I did that back to him, and he started cracking up. He made it back, and then I made it back to him. Now, making the piggy face is one of his favorite things, and he does it all the time. He's doing it now as he plays with his bucket next to me.

Yesterday, he was babbling as normal. He said, "Mamamamamam." I often repeat his sounds back to him, and he's usually fascinated by it. Yesterday, however, he repeated it back again to me. I clapped for him, and he got really excited. We said, "Mamamamam," back and forth a few times. After Andrew got home, I tried to get Oliver to say, "Mamamamam," again, but he couldn't remember how. I'll have to wait for him to make the sound and try again.

This is so exciting! It's so much fun to "talk" to my boy!