Mama made strawberry milkshakes from the last of our summer strawberries as an evening treat. The girls were playing after a bath and when Julia heard the blender running she came to investigate. “Wha dat?” and “For Me?” were her first questions. She talked non-stop for a while trying to figure out what all the noise was for. She seemed to have an opinion about everything including what cup she wanted to drink from. Who knew that all we had to do to get her to talk was to make milkshakes? They were yummy!

Julia is answering questions about her breakfast with a new nod and one of her favorite words ‘More’. We haven’t been able to get her to say ‘more please’ yet, but we are working on it. We also see the ‘No’ head nod a lot more often than the ‘Yes’ nod. She is really pleased to be able to communicate with us though.

Julia is enjoying a world that she can communicate with. She has mastered a squeal and babble to get our attention. She points with her finger to what she wants or where she wants to go to. Her little arm is extended straight with a lot of excitement when she is pointing. She still has her wild arm wave of excitement when she sees us with something she wants, generally food. The last couple of days have brought the sign language sign ‘More’ when she is interested in eating or wanting more food. Recently, she started raising her arms to be picked up, and occasionally she is saying ‘UP’ at the same time.

I wonder what she will start doing tomorrow. We are seeing new things everyday!

I thought that it would be fun to make a list of all the words that Emily has been using. I made the list at the beginning of her 22nd month, while she has added more words since then I am going to keep the list as it was at that point. Emily has a lot to say, but a lot of it comes out as babble. Her words consist of the beginning of the word and if lucky two consonants. The back half of words, additional syllables, and ending consonants are usually dropped completely. Of the babble that Mommy can translate these are the words she is saying:

mama, da (daddy), sister, julia, hi, hey, bye-bye, night-night, eat (will also sign), thank you, please (will also sign), yes, yeah, no, on, off, up, down (will also sign), nana (banana), lid, knock-knock, pee-pee (will also sign by patting diaper), milk (will also sign), juice (will also sign), phone, teeth, hot, cold, purple, pink, kitty, doggie, k / ok, shoe, help, backpack, map

(19 months) Emily has several ways to communicate with her outside world. I thought that it would be good to document what she is doing at this point.

Actions – Emily has several ways to comunicate with us through actions. If she wants us to do something with her she takes our hands and leads us to the location of what she wants. She will sometimes get Mommy out of a chair and then get Daddy and take him to a baby gate expecting Mommy to also follow. Emily will also bring books and toys to you when she wants to play with you. Lastly she loves to dance to music. She dances when encouraged, but also on her own when inspired by the music.

Sign Language – Emily will sign to us to communicate her needs and wants. Some of the words are based on our expected response or just to tell us information. The signs she is using right now are: juice, milk, please, baby, and more. She also nods her head yes and no. Her head noding is more accurate than her choice of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in words. Her favorite request is to ask for juice.

Words – Emily has been talking for quite a while and has more words than we can understand. She loves to babble, but I think there are real words imbeded in her babble that we just do not understand. When she doesn’t have her pacifier in her mouth she babbles even more. The words that she uses fairly often and are understandable are: thank you, OK, Da or Daty (Daddy), all done, yes, no, hi, shoes, bye-bye, think-think-think, and oh boy. As much as I would enjoy it she hasn’t added Mommy to her daily language. ‘Think-think-think’ is a phrase used on the Pooh and Tigger cartoon. ‘Oh boy’ is a phrase used on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse by Mickey. She uses ‘oh boy’ appropriately, but only uses ‘think-think-think’ when the show is on.