Kalle's Words

**edited to add (see red)**

At 15 months, Kalle is quite the talker...in Jabberwocky. ;) It's so funny to see him talk, talk, talk as if he were having a conversation with us. He is so much more verbal than Lochlan was at the same age. I suspect that it's because Lochlan didn't really start speaking until after the age of 2 when Grammy and Grampy moved to Vermont and he saw them every week. Soon after that, his speech took off. Not that we were worried in the first place because he had an extensive signing vocabulary at that age. Kalle has more exposure to speech: from Lochlan and of course, Grammy and Grampy. Here are a list of Kalle's words, both spoken and signed, so far (that I can remember, anyway):

Sign:

* FOOTBALL (he uses his pointer fingers and puts them together)
* MORE (just started signing that today, same way as FOOTBALL)
* PARACHUTE (every morning he points to the picture of Mommy and Daddy skydiving and every morning I sign the story: MOMMY DADDY PLANE FLY-UP-HIGH JUMP PARACHUTE and he would laugh and laugh; one day he started signed PARACHUTE-with one hand)
* MILK (ironically, he very rarely uses this sign...instead he would pat-pat-pat my chest to indicate what he wants or pull at my shirt)
* UP (raises his arms)
* UPSTAIRS
* DOWNSTAIRS
* FIRE
* DRINK
* PITTSBURGH (Nick thinks Kalle copied him one time)
* POINT (he is very clear when he wants something specific-points often)
* FISH (he signed it only a couple of times but nothing since...)
* CAR (he uses the classifier but with pointer finger and makes noises with his lips)


Speech (I'm not sure of the exact sounds he makes for some of the words...naturally, I'm not the right person to explain =P ):

* Mama (but of course! ;) it also means 'milk')
* football (I think he says fuh-bah)
* touchdown (tah-dah...?)
* Daddy (he says both 'Dada' and 'Da-dee')
* Sit (more like 'zit' or maybe 'dit')
* Lochlan (lah-lah)
* that (everything is DAH! DAH! DAH! point! point! point!)
* kitty (I'm not sure what he says but he says the same sounds every time he sees a kitty)

And my Mom reports that Kalle says:
* cracker
* cookie
* TV
* applesauce
* ball (probably 'bah')

I also have to mention that while the words Kalle says is few, he understands far more of our signs...too numerous to name here. Looking back at the posts from when Lochlan was the same age, I now see that it seems that Kalle has a far more extensive vocabulary at 15 months than Lochlan did (his vocabulary tripled by the time he was 17 months old). The development of language in babies and toddlers is so mind-blowing and I love being able to witness it all!

That's all I can think of at the moment. Speaking of which, Kalle is now grabbing at my hands...ready for bed! =) Buenas noches!