Language

Ok, so I am going to brag a little – Nikolai seems so smart! His language skills are really taking off. Of course, he is only one-and-a-half (almost), so we are not talking full sentences or anything, but he is adding words seemingly daily and can repeat anything we say. He regularly uses about 30 words (including animal sounds and expressions). He will also sign more and please. He does not really put words together, except to say “hi doggie” “here doggie” “bye bye mama” “more banana”, etc. Last night I was trying to get him to point to pictures in the picture book when I said the word, which is something he would not do at all last time I tried a few weeks ago. This time he actually pointed to the dog, sheep, fish, ball and guinea pig (we have a guinea pig). After doing this for a while with various things, out of nowhere I turned to a page and in quick succession he pointed and said “fish, banana, ball, doggie, airplane, blue” and then closed the book as if to say “there, all done”. Not all of his labels were completely correct, but pretty close; the “ball” was actually a pumpkin and the “banana” was actually a lemon. We had seen an airplane earlier and had just been talking about that picture, so that was not as surprising as it sounds. The “blue” was a blue triangle. Daycare has been saying that Nik knows yellow and blue, but I was not sure if he really knew the colors or just the words – apparently he knows the colors!

Nikolai's Words:
Mama
Dada
Nana
PopPop
Heh oh (hello - when playing with the phone)
Hi
Bye bye
Ear (while pulling on his ear – hopefully he is not trying to tell me it hurts!?)
Eye
Apple
Ish (fish)
Banana
Tea (eat)
Ah done (all done)
Yay!
Wow
Uh oh
Wawa (water) daycare says he says “agua” but we have not heard this yet
Book (he really stresses the “k” now – maybe they have been working on it at school?)
Ba (bath)
P (up)
Ball
Bubbles!
Blue
Yellow
Car
Tuck (truck)
Doggie
Calk (chalk)
Dirdie (birdie)
Dinie (guinea pig)
Boon (balloon)
Ow si (outside)

Ooh ooh (dog)
Ee ee (monkey)
Ga ga gak (chicken)
Meeaa (cat)
Baa (sheep)