the state of the vocabulary

D has a pretty good vocabulary for his age (which is almost one).  His intelligible speech really picked up in the middle of March.  It’s really exciting for all of us.

Here’s a list of what he says (that we understand), in descending order of frequency:

• bus – We live in a bus-watcher’s paradise.  He’s been saying it for about a month now and I’m positive he’s using it appropriately.  Sometimes he points too.  He can’t say the /s/ yet, but then if you took away my top teeth, I probably couldn’t say it either.  We’ve recently introduced the sign [BUS] too though we’re not sure he’s noticed it yet.
• bye bye – He loves saying this while waving and revels in the delight it gives to adults.  He says it at farewells, but sometimes waits long enough that the intended recipient is already gone.  Once he starts, he won’t stop though.  He says it in an adorably throaty and confident way.  He started about a month ago and used to say it while looking out the window.  Now he pretty much only says it to people, though not exclusively at the time of partings. It makes trips to the store more interesting.
• book – This one is awesome.  About a month ago he started saying it while looking at books.  At first he said the /k/ but now he doesn’t.  Then I introduced the sign [BOOK] and now he uses it perfectly.  He really loves looking at books now.  At the moment he uses the sign more than the word.
• hi – He said this a few weeks ago and then stopped, but now is back at it and he’s starting to say it appropriately.
• baby – He said this when we visited a new baby in the hospital and now says it frequently though we can’t always tell which baby (if any) he is referring to.  We started signing songs and putting “baby Dx-xx” in the lyrics and he loves it.  He says baby and really seems to wish he could sing it with us.
• ball – This one is pretty recent.  He doesn’t say the /l/ so you have to be listening for it, but he definitely uses it correctly.  We also have introduced the sign [BALL].
• cat – He’s been saying cat (without the /t/) and kitty cat or kitty (first syllable only) for several months.  The /ki/ of kitty is adorably high pitched.  When we read a book about cats he stops to look for Emo.
• Dx – I’m not sure about this one, but when we stand in front of the mirror he says the first syllable of his name while grinning at himself.  He’s recognized his name for several months.
• dad – Along with dada, this has been in his vocabulary for months.  A few months ago he said a nice bye bye dada, but it’s rare and I think he still uses it for more than just the dad concept.
• mom – Phonetically this was a very early word, but I think he still uses it in distress more than to refer to me.  Jack reports that he says it if I’m gone at bedtime and I hear it occasionally when he wants to get out of the high chair right this second.
• more – This is an exciting one.  He’s started signing it and last week he even signed more book very clearly!

Notable for their absence are signs for food and milk, two of our more consistently used ASL signs [post: a few ASL signs].  I guess he’s just not that hungry.

For about three weeks now, he’s been pointing at things which is fun.  He also says “huh?” with very clear rising interrogative intonation.

He’s also started shaking his head when we say no and a few months ago he would stop what he was doing sometime when we said a forceful no.  I assume he still understands but just chooses to ignore us.