Words Pob can say

My mother has dug out the book she kept during my second year. It's quite entertaining noting both our different parenting styles, as well as where I was at developmentally. Turns out my parents had almost no rules for me, so my mother described me as a tiny tyrant, screaming loudly to get whatever I wanted. She resorted to drugging me to get me to sleep because she was so exhausted by the time I was 13 months - with Phernergan, nothing dreadful - but still.

This prompted H, my mother and I to try to make a list of all the words Pob is saying. Turns out Pob and I were/are quite similar in our language acquisition. We had/have a similar number of words in our vocabulary at 16 months, although only about 50% of the words are the same. We came up with this list for Pob:

Daddy
Mama
Baby
[nanny's name]
Pat
Me
Teddy
Bunny
Bird
Book
Da (dummy)
Dat (that)
Trees
Pen
Bye
Hello
Hair
Eyes
Ear
Nose
Arm
Teeth
Head
Bath
Splash
Bubbles
Poo
Shoes
Socks
Button
Poppers
Coat
Tights
Highchair
Bib
Chair
Up
Down
Downstairs
Carry
Hiding
Backwards
Hat
On
Off
Gone
More
Open
Yes
No
Hot
Cold
Spoon
Bottle
Plate
Apple
Cheese
Toast
Pear
Teletubby
Po (one of the teletubbies)
Block
Toys
Light
Train
Car
House
Back
Door
Home
Park
Ball
Cat
Dog
Bear
Fish (mouth opens and closes)
Woof
Meow
Baa
Neigh
Moo
Oink
Please
Ta (thanks)
Spot (as in the dog in the book)
Mog (as in the cat in the book)
Rosie (as in the chicken in the book)
Stars
[my younger brother's name]

I'd say about 50% of these are intelligible to anyone listening, the rest probably just to H, my mother, the nanny, and me. Obviously many are not spoken as written - e.g., some of the animal noises often seem to start with "ah" - so she says - "Ah-Moo", "Ah-neigh" etc. She also speaks more to those she knows, she's unlikely to say much directly to strangers other than "bye," and possibly some of her favourite words like "chair" and "dog." She's also at the stage where she repeats most things we say to her, but then doesn't necessarily retain the word to use again later. She had a go at "dinosaur" last week but she hasn't again. Some words are hard to say. She had a good go at "obama" this morning but only got as far as 'Aba."

In my vocab at 16 months were a few words Pob has no idea of including Smarties, Sweeties and Chocolate. Seems my parents had resorted to bribery early.

Comments

[Bea]

How cool that you can compare.

Bea

[statia]

I know I talked far more than the Mini did at 16 months. Issues aside. I was already using short two word sentences before a year (go uppie, mama bye bye, etc, and I think that's a girl thing). I have to ask my mother if she drugged me. Because I think I was much the same way as you.

[Betty M]

Go POB!
I was definitely talking earlier than Z but probably about the same as L. I managed it in two languages mind - one of which I can barely speak now. I am impressed that you and your mother have such detailed notes. Even my birth weight is only recorded vaguely and as to time of birth all I got was "oh - after supper".

[Aurelia]

I was just saying to another mom yesterday that there's nothing wrong with a little medicine for baby (tylenol) if it stops the screaming for a few hours and lets you get some sleep.

Specially around teeth time. sigh...

Anyway, I spoke at six months, a few words quite distinctly, but by 16 months still pretty similarly to what you list. My kids spoke later than me, but still managed to get some words and gestures out that made some sense to me and now to our nanny. I think they understand and retain a lot more than they show. They just seem to be so busy learning everything, they can't focus on pronunciation or they would never bother learning to walk.

[Nico]

I think it's hysterical that your words at 16mo included smarties and chocolate!

I DO miss Smarties!!

[Sara]

Wow! That's an impressive vocab. At 14 months, Eggbert only has about 8 words.

[KIMMER]

Bryce can say many of the same words. He seems to get obsessed with one word every so often though and we hear that word about 5 million times that day! He learned to say apple over the weekend so I've heard apple about 200 times this weekend, lol.
Pob sounds like she's going to be a head of the game, I love to see Bryce do the fishy face also. It's adorable.
Too funny about the smarties, sweeties, and chocolate for you.

[Spanglish]

That's quite the impressive list!! I'm curious to see how quickly vocabulary grows.

[Mel]

I wish I had kept a list. I've been terrible at keeping the baby books but then when you hear about how you're reading yours now and comparing them, it makes me feel like I should get on it so the twins can have that experience. It sounds cool.

[May]

The idea of the cuteness of Pob doing fish-face is overwhelming. I wish I could have seen it.

[MsPrufrock]

I'm with May - a Pob fish face? Cuuute.

That's quite a list, and I have to say I was impressed with how verbal she was in the short period I saw her the other day. Piper only started saying chocolate before she turned two, and it was "chocrit". I used to show her chocolate just to get her to say it. Chocrit.

[Hairy Farmer Family]

Oh, the fishy-impression was just the BEST! I blinked several times in total astonishment - and what's more, it's not every child who can manage to continue to look like a cherub-perched-on-a-cloud whilst doing fish impressions, but Pob cruised it!

[Soralis]

Wow she is a busy girl! Enjoy!

[rockmama]

This list lets me know that I REALLY should be keeping track of these things!

My husband found his baby book recently and was bemused to discover that one of his phrases at 2 was "I know where your s**t is." This explains a lot about his early childhood.

[luolin]

I've been trying to keep track, but I'm not keeping up well, even though Zeb doesn't have anywhere near the number of words that POB does, even counting the ones that only my husband and I understand.

[sarah]

that's great! what are poppers?? piper has a long list too but when we see strangers out she just says "hi" and then "hi. hi. hi. hi! HI!" People often ask "is that all she can say?" After they've gone from sight she softly says "bye." But i hear 'mama' and 'no' FAR more than any of her others!

[Valentina's Female Fertility Guide]

Ha! One of my favourite words was "twactor" (tractor) apparently. Bit weird for a female :)

Sounds like you have one clever little girl there.

Valentina.

[utRus]

isn't language acquisition the best??!! it's so much fun. my 2 are 20 months now and listening to them talk is the highlight of my day :) your girl sounds sooooo cute! :) hope you're well.

[Beagle]

I'm looking forward to the talking phase!
Clever POB!