Speech and Language

This is a post that I have been meaning to do for quite some time so that I can remember Nathanh's language development milestones in the years to come. 

Nathanh is not a quiet baby!  He is very talkative and babbles (or growls loudly) much of the time!  I have been trying to listen for different letter sounds that he is able to make in his everyday babbling.  So far I have heard these sounds:  a, b, d, g, h, long i, l, m, n, r, u, y and oo (as in peakaboo).

Nathanh says "mama" repeatedly but although it is getting more consistent, I still don't think he knows "mama" refers exclusively to me .  He typically repeats "mama" when he wakes up in the morning or after nap time and says it throughout the day...I am always there so he could be talking to me but...

Nathanh's receptive language is developing too.  There are definite words that he knows.

light - he knows that when we say light he is to switch on or off the light switch on the wall.
dada - he will look at Erwin.  He will also crawl to Erwin if I say "go see dada" or "go to dada"
jumping - when he is in a standing position he will start jumping on command
clapping - he will clap his hands
bye - will wave bye
hi - will wave hi
cloth - Nathanh will look at or get his cloth...he always has one close by!
polar bears - he will look at his feet...okay not correct, but consistent!
ball - will go get his ball, if he doesn't want it then he'll just look at it.
turtle - he will turn and look at the turtles (he has turtle wall decals in his room and beside his change table)
tiger - I just noticed this one on Monday.  He looked at and picked up his stuffed tiger when I asked "where's your tiger?"
head - just starting to get this one...when we say head he will pat his head!

clapping

head

And here are some words that we are working on but I can't say that he definitely understands.
kicking - we use this all the time in swimming
splashing - also from swimming
ear
soother
more - I am pairing this with the sign for more.  Nathanh will often clap instead of doing the more sign but for right now I am treating the clap as the more sign and then helping him to make it correctly.  Who knows maybe he is just clapping...to Nathanh all food deserves an encore!
water - I pair this with the sign for water too.
bottle - Also pairing this with the sign.
finished or all done- also pairing it with the sign

That is all I can think of right now. 

I was having coffee with a friend a couple of weeks ago and said that I wished he'd just slow down on the growing and changing so fast.  My friend has two children, a 4 year old, going to kindergarten in September and an 11 month old.  Anyways, she said "no, don't think like that" and assured me that it only gets better as they grow, learn and develop.  She said it is just so much fun as they get to the stage where you can have conversations and ask them questions about their thinking.  As I think about it more, perhaps she is right, Nathanh and I have so much fun everyday.  He really does make me laugh and as he is able to do and understand more and more I think I am enjoying myself more and more too.  He is becoming so much more interactive and it is fun teaching and showing him new things...I still want him to stay little though!!