Words

Along with signing more, Matthew is saying more, and we have officially declared him to have a vocabulary. He has quite a few regular sounds, but the "words" he has are different that because they are associated fairly regularly with consistent objects or people. It is funny to watch him figure out words. Given that he has so few, a word must mean a lot, so whereas we have very specific meanings, his are quite broad. And instead of coming up with new words (new words are hard!) he just makes do with the words he has by broadening the definition (see "doey") . His current language set includes, in order of appearance:

"uh oh". Not really a word, but definitely an expression with a meaning - that being "something that is not what it should be - often because I made it that way". As in, "I dropped the book on the floor": "uh-oh", or "I threw my food on the floor": "uh-oh". This was technically his first sound with consistent discernible meaning, but most kids get this one early and it isn't really a word per-se. So we are going to give the honour of first word to "mum-mee"

"Mum-mee". This one is very clear and is consistently associated with Kristine and pictures of Kristine. However I am also included in this sometimes. "Da-dee" is very close to being part of the lexicon, but it is not consistent enough yet - though he does say it and it is associated with me.

"doey". Also very clear, and used regularly to refer to Joey... and Patches, and cats, and sometimes animals in general. Like I said, when you only have 5 words, you make them work for ya. We were in Superstore and he went tearing down the isle (why walk when you can run... everywhere!) and came to a stop in front of a huge bag of cat food with a big picture of a cat on it. He proudly turned to me and pointed at the bag declaring "doey!".

"nana". the most consistent and specific of all: banana.

"ba-boo". Bottle. This one is fairly new. he uses it intermittently, but only associated with his bottle.

If you include his signs, he also has language for "more", "milk", "wash hands", "hot", "bye", "all done" and of course the ubiquitous "that" which is just pointing. The degree to which 'that' is important is conveyed by the earnestness of the point, or, the exceedingly annoying "unuhhh!!! uuuhhhh!! uuuhhh!!".

But what he can communicate to us is far outstripped by what he understands. He can respond to fairly complex instructions, like "go find mommy" or "go get your shoes and jacket because we need to go". Basically we talk to him like a real person and he responds. It is fascinating. Also dangerous because we have to watch what we say now. I don't really want his next word to be "oh crap".