I’ve been adding to a list of our talking baby’s words and signs for a while now, meaning to post them. I think it’s time.

Signed Words:

• more
• airplane
• cat
• bird
• eat
• potty
• nurse

Verbal words and pronunciations, in approximate order learned:

• hi
• dog (daw)
• woof woof (woo woo)
• down (dow – and points vigorously)
• “grrr” used to indicate bears and snowmen, now is any animal whose name she doesn’t know
• cat (dat said in a high pitched meowing voice)
• ball (bah)
• e-i-e-i-e-i (has turned into yi-yi-yi-yo)
• ice
• light (ite)
• banana (naNAna)
• food (nana)
• baby (baaaybay) (her word for anybody under the age of, say, 12)
• bird (burr)
• santa (deh-deh)
• gives a kiss and says “muh”
• horse (huss)
• two
• egg (g)
• og (orange..the fruit)
• bye-bye (bah-buh)
• donkey (dogm)
• Dada
• Daddy
• Momma
• that (dat – usually means “I want that”)
• flower (fwow-uh)
• rabbit (wab-uh)
• moon
• balloon (boo)
• star (daow)
• fish (fiss)
• shoe (used to rhyme with cow, now sounds like szoo)
• airplane (wee!)
• snake (ssss)
• apple (a-poe)
• water (wa-wuh)
• duck/quack (kah-kah)
• pig (makes a snorting noise)
• eyes
• turtle (t-t)
• heart (haw)
• up (hup)
• on
• off (op)
• sock (with the “ck” sound elongated and guttural)
• please (pees – uses to respond to my question “Do you want help?”)
• bye-bye (bah-buh)
• car (cah)
• bear (bayo)
• Nemo (Mee-mo)
• candle (dat-doh)
• purple (pur-poh)
• Nonna and Papa (No-no, Papa)
• bubble (bubbuh)
• sheep/lamb (baaaa)
• write (wite wite/ite ite ite)
• milk (miccck)
• outside (sye)
• bounce bounce bounce (baw-baw-baw)
• phone (foe)
• color (caw-coe)
• cracker (caw-coe…yes, it can be confusing!)
• sunshine (suh-sye)
• toilet paper (“pull” because that’s what she does with it)
• flush (fwusss)

This week she has started putting two words together:

• two bears
• more flowers
• Hi Daddy
• two shoes
• help please
• two phones

Did you make it all the way to the end? All I have left to say is that I think I’ll stop keeping track now that I’ve finally posted these lists!

As a Special Education teacher, I loved watching students progress from parroting words, spoken or signed, to truly using language to communicate. Then again when they transitioned from communicating what they did or did not want, to communicating interesting things in their world – I loved that too.

As a Momma, I have delighted in observing Siena as she learns new words and learns to communicate with us. Her first word was “Hi” and it’s still the word she uses the most. She greets just about every person who crosses her path, and repeats her greeting until she gains their attention. Everybody we pass at the grocery store, at Mass, the Post Office, the doctor’s office, restaurants…she’s not satisfied unless every last person has made eye contact, smiled, and either waved or said “hi.” Even better if they declare how cute she is, or how friendly, or how happy.

At first she struck me as extremely observant, delightedly pointing out dogs, bears, flowers, stars, moons, apples, bananas, and babies in cluttered or busy environments. I often have to look carefully to find the item she’s pointing to, marveling at her attention to detail.

Lately I’ve started to think of these incidents with an analogy. I picture that, for her first twelve months or so, Siena has been seeing the world in black and white, not knowing the names of the things she sees. Then as soon as she learned “flower” it was like every flower in her environment turned to color. It would be like having a Where’s Waldo book where only Waldo and his red striped shirt were in color but busy pages were shades of grey.

If there are only a few colorful items in your world, they’re going to grab your eye even if others don’t give them a second glance. Here’s an example. Ever since Siena learned “moon” she points it out in the sky and in her board books. She’s starting to see moon-like shapes though. She got a St. Valentine’s Day card from her Nonna and Papa with cartoon hearts with big white grins. At first I didn’t understand when Siena was pointing to the hearts and calling them moons, until I realized the crescent smiles looked like moons to her. Same thing the day I peeled a whole banana and showed it to her. And again when she nibbled her canned pineapple ring into a half circle. Both suddenly looked like moons to her.

I love watching her figure out categories and other complexities of language. It used to be that any dot or circle she saw was “ball”, including the heads on the icons for men’s and women’s bathrooms. Then we played with bubbles one day, and one dimensional circles all turned into “bubba”s and only spheres remain balls. There is an exception to her rule though. My favorite “bubba” is the clear plastic ball my drugstore trouser socks came in. When I first bought it she called it a ball, but now it’s her treasured bubble, supposedly because it’s clear?

Based on observations of how she groups her toys, she seems focused on the task of understanding the categories of plants, people, and animals. Her way of distinguishing something as an animal is by making a growling sound. If she knows it’s not a cat, dog, bird, or fish but that it is an animal whose label she doesn’t know, she categorizes it as “animal” by making a throaty “grrrr” sound. (At least that’s my interpretation of what she’s doing.) I laughed so hard the day she was figuring out her new figurine of Crush from Finding Nemo. He’s a turtle with flowers on his shell. She pointed to him and called him a flower – fwowuh. I said yes, he has flowers on his shell but he’s called a turtle. She seemed puzzled that a flower was somehow also an animal, and settled on meshing the two categories by using her guttural, growly voice to declare it “Fwowuh!”

She’s also expressed confusion about Baby Jesus having the same name as the Jesus on the cross at church. There’s a big wooden crucifix leaning against the wall of the room we use as a cry room in the back of the church. A while ago she pointed to him and asked, “Grrr?” as if to say, “Is that an animal?” I told her that was Jesus. She paused for a moment then exclaimed with a tone of recognition: “Baybee!”

She’s paying attention to the language at Mass, too. Soon after she learned the word “sun”, came the reading of the Prodigal Son. You guessed it – each time the priest said “son” Siena happily echoed with “sun.” Another time we were attending the afternoon Spanish Mass since we’d all slept in and missed the morning Mass. She heard the priest say, “manana” and grinned at me like she was in on a joke, and said “Momma!”.

Siena is reminding me of another reason I find language development so fascinating: it helps me see the world through the eyes of a child. Siena’s world is a pretty exciting place, full of friends just waiting to be greeted with a “Hi!” and a huge smile. I sure hope she maintains her joyful optimism as she discovers more and more about the world. I look forward to helping her reveal all of its colors.

length – 31 inches
weight – 20 pounds

I’m including some pictures of you at your appointment. (Click here to see pictures from earlier doctor visits.) For my own memory, here’s a snapshot of your development. I’ll use the areas of development we documented when I taught special education preschool.

Personality

Siena is a social little girl who greets most adults she sees, and particularly loves dogs, babies, and children.  She loves to dance (sometimes even while nursing) and is observant and persistent.  She likes to hold two matching items in each hand, and walks around the house trading items to find better matches. She might start with two wooden puzzle pieces, then trade one for a plastic dog to match the dog puzzle piece. Later she may set down the puzzle piece and pick up a second plastic dog.

Gross Motor Skills

Siena can jump in place, spin (from a standing or sitting position), walk forwards and backwards independently. She climbs up stairs using her hands and knees, and backs down stairs with guidance. When an adult holds one hand, she can walk up and down stairs, bringing her feet together on each step.  She consistently squats down and stands up without losing her balance.

Fine Motor Skills

Siena has a proficient pincer grasp, points spontaneously, scribbles with an age appropriate grasp, and makes several gestures in sign language that require finger dexterity. She seems to prefer her right hand. She often attempts to hold two things in one hand but does not yet squirrel small items in her fist.

Adaptive Skills – Self  Help

Siena can take off her socks and can unfasten the Velcro closures on her shoes. She tries to put clips in her hair and hats on her head. She can remove hair clips, headbands, and hats.  She helps with dressing and undressing by pushing her arms through sleeves, stepping her legs in and out of pants while steadying herself against a parent, holding out one foot at a time for socks and shoes, and uses her arms to push a shirt over her head when a parent is pulling it over her head. She holds still for several seconds to get her hair styled and watches quietly as her nails get trimmed. Siena sits on a pottty seat on the regular sized toilet at each diaper change, and claps for herself when she urinates in the toilet about once per day.  She moves a toothbrush back and forth in her mouth, and is working on tolerating a parent brushing her teeth for her. When prompted, she will imitate  ”cleaning up” by putting her toys in a designated container. She likes to wipe her high chair tray with a baby wipe, and is growing increasingly tolerant of her hands and face getting wiped.  Siena tends to make a screeching or  ”eh-eh-eh”  noise  is frustrated, and is working on signing or saying “Please” in  order to request help appropriately. Siena feeds herself with her fingers and practices with spoons and forks. She drinks from an open cup, held by an adult, with some spilling. She has some exposure to drinking from a straw and from sippy cups, but resists holding her own cup. She does hold a CamelBak brand waterbottle with an internal straw, which doesn’t require tipping the waterbottle in order to drink. She currently drops her cup and fingerfood on the floor to indicate she is done eating, and is working to replace this behavior by asking for “down.”  She currently responds to a prompt when asked if she wants “more” or “down” but is working on spontaneously making her request to get down before throwing things.

Adaptive Skills – Following a Routine

Siena used to protest strongly when getting into her carseat, but now accepts the straps and moves a toy from one hand to the other to assist with getting into the straps. She seems to anticipate each element of family routines such as waving goodbye when Daddy leaves for work, being lifted up to touch lights on her way to bed, or reading books and brushing her teeth while sitting on the potty.  She gets frustrated at times if we try to skip a step but does not demonstrate rigid adherence to a routine.

Social Skills

Siena has been described as “the most personable baby I’ve ever met”  by a woman she sits near most weekends at Mass, as “so social” by strangers, and as “the family extrovert” by family members.  She takes toys from playmates and also offers toys.  She enjoys playing “chase” with other toddlers and children.   Siena brings books to her parents to read to her and plays simple turn-taking games such as fetch, peek-a-boo, and “gimme five.”  She giggles when she offers food to a parent, kisses her stuffed animals, or has her stuffed animals kiss each other (or her shoes, or the wall…)

Cognitive

Siena activates simple musical toys, enjoys put-and-take toys,  removes pieces from wooden non-interlocking puzzles and attempts to put them in but gets frustrated easily. Much of her independent play consists of moving toys from one surface to another, rocking them on the rocking chair or rocking horse, placing them in containers and scooting containers around. She does some spontaneous sorting toys by category, such as putting all the plastic fish toys in one group, the wooden puzzle pieces in another group, and the stacking cups in another. She loves board books, especially turning the pages (forward and backwards) and pointing to or labeling images she recognizes.  She does not yet identify her body parts, but when asked, “Where’s your nose?” will point to the nose of the person who asked the question.

Communication

Siena has an expressive vocabulary of about 35 words, signs 5 words using baby sign language, and demonstrates a growing grasp of receptive language. She communicates her wants and needs through a combination of single word utterances (not yet putting two words together), vocalizations, gestures, and signs. She uses language both to make requests and to label items around her.  She tries to imitate new words.

We love you so much Siena! All 31 inches, 20 pounds, and sixteen months of you! You’ve grown and learned so many things right before our eyes. I wish I could keep you from growing up and hold onto this precious toddler stage a bit longer, but then I suppose we’d miss out on the rest of the things you’re aching to learn and discover each day.  Go ahead then…keep growing…just not too quickly, ok?

They arrived after I returned home, around St. Valentine’s Day. While HawkInWinter enjoyed the care package, he was a bit disappointed to realize I had sent them before we met, rather than after.  Our relationship wasn’t quite defined at that point, though he was hoping the SURPRISE cookies were an indication I was interested.

Three years (and one week) ago today, HawkInWinter was no longer “my online guy” in another state, but was my first ever Valentine, and fiance to boot.  He had been accepted to graduate school in my state and lived about 40 minutes from me.  He’d made a big deal out of being too busy with grad school to do much for St. Valentine’s Day, so I  had a St. Valentine’s dinner with friends.  Back at my condo, HawkInWinter had let himself in and lit all sorts of candles, placed three colorful roses in a vase, written a beautiful card and even had music playing to welcome me as I walked in.  It was a wonderful SURPRISE.

Two years (and one week) ago today, HawkInWinter and I had been married for six months and were staring, wide-eyed and scared, at a positive pregnancy test.  Eleven weeks later, once we’d adjusted to the news of our unexpected blessing and shared it with our family and friends, HawkInWinter posted a blog titled “I’m Going to be a Daddy!” to tell the world about our St. Valentine’s Day SURPRISE.  (You can click the bold words to go see his post.)

One year (and one week ago) today, Siena posted a blog titled “What a Difference a Year Makes!” about all the things she could see, hear, smell, taste, and touch that year as opposed to her first St. Valentine’s Day inside my tummy.  She included pictures of herself, her buddy London, and my SURPRISES at the end of a sticky note treasure hunt.

One week ago today, I was back from two overnights at my parents’ house.  HawkInWinter was my date to a Friday evening Sweetheart Cabaret at my parents’ parish where my father and big sister served as “sound engineers” for the event.

On Saturday, Siena squealed at her own cleverness as she repeatedly kissed her reflection in the giant exercise ball while we got the house ready for a family party…

…clapped for herself when she did well at a toddler game on her auntie’s brand new iPhone…

…and handed out Valentines with her fingerpainted hearts on them. (Remember our adventures with fingerpaint?)

I attempted a recipe from Family Fun magazine with layers of red Jell-O and unflavored gelatin mixed with sweetened condensed milk. (If I do it again, I’ll follow the recipe on the box for Jigglers so they’ll work a bit better.)

Back at home  Sunday morning, HawkInWinter SURPRISED me with an envelope but no card inside, just a slip of paper that said, “Because St. Valentine’s Day sucks, I am going to make you work for your card. Who knows? You might find something extra along the way. First clue: HawkInWinter’s favorite movie.”    (Admittedly I looked in three or four DVD cases before finding my second clue!)  Some clues were tricky:  ”A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.” Some were silly, some sentimental, but  all had been carefully hidden so I was unlikely to find them before the hunt began. I even had to stand on a chair and remove a wall hanging to find a hint taped to the back of  it!

I finally found my card, and a couple clues after that, my first ever dozen red roses. We have found ways to SURPRISE each other each of the last four St. Valentine’s Days. So far Siena has been the best (and biggest!) SURPRISE for us both.

I’m thinking next year if HawkInWinter tries to lower my expectations with grumblings about being too busy or simply disliking the commercial holiday, I’ll be on to him. I really should learn he always has a SURPRISE or two up his sleeve!

that from these pictures…

taken at her six month vaccinations….

to these pictures today at her seven month vaccinations…

she gained nearly two pounds and a full inch??

Me neither.

Then I realized it was actually two months ago that she had her last measurements taken, since last month was just vaccines. Here she was at five months:

So I guess it’s not as dramatic a change as I’d thought. So much for this blog post!

Let’s start again:

Here are some pictures of Siena at the doctor in the past three months. While we’re at it, you can click here to see pictures from her very first doctor visit.

Yay. I’m going to bed. Growing babies make tired Mommas.