Wordsmith

Well, before this list gets too long, I thought I should make a note of the words that Finley has said and can say. Since Dan and I have been a tough audience in terms of naming an official "first word" I suspect we missed which one was the truly the first, but perhaps our expectations were a bit high :) From what I can tell, most kids' first words are simply those that they echo as opposed to ones that they spontaneously utter all on their own. Once they have repeated it enough and understand the meaning/use, then they might say it without hearing it from someone else first. Finley is still at the echo stage (with a couple exceptions), but it seems easier for him to repeat several of the words we say to him these days. As we got him ready for bed tonight, I was saying a few things so Dan could hear Finley repeat them and the little gem actually cooperated! Dan was blown away! He was away over the weekend and doesn't always get a ton of time with Finley before bed, so it was great to show off some of his new vocabulary.

So here's the list (to the best of my memory) of words that he can repeat or has been able to at some point in the past few weeks. It's funny that some of the words are words we say to him ALL the time and others were sort of random in-the-moment words that he just grabbed onto the first time.

-apple

-help (hup)

-up

-uh-oh

-cheese (dairy product or camera related)

-wow/whoa (sometimes he says these on his own if he falls or spills something)

-da-dee and da-da (so much easier to say that ma-mee or ma-ma, apparently)

-ball (ba)

-shoes (soos)

-Arty (his small penguin)

-bubble (last night in the tub it was "bu-bu" and tonight before bed it sounded more like "bu-bl", progress!)

-mango (newest one inspired by tonight's dessert after dinner, kinda sounds like man-o)

And the last two words are the ones that he says on his own (often) when the occasion calls for them:

-hi (whenever he sees anyone on the sidewalk, when I open the car door to get him out, when he sees a person in a book and it's usually accompanied by a hand squeezing wave)

-more (sounds like "mo" and comes with the sign language sign and means I NEED/WANT FOOD!)

His extensive babbling continues and at times it seems as if he's really having a conversation with us or himself. I think it's great because we've managed to convince him that we understand what he's saying or asking in order to continue the conversation :) He's also added high pitched screaming (excitement related, thankfully), self-imposed bouts of laughter, and the occasional whisper to his sound toolbox. So fun to have such a vocal member of the household emerging!

Hopefully there will be some video evidence of all this chit-chatting soon, but I can't promise anything!