Billa Babble: Yes, Shoe, Table, and Chair

They say the "word explosion" hits between 18 and 20 months. We didn't think we had hit it, but since we have stopped using the paci so much, our child just babbles away like the Energizer bunny! She has been saying a lot, but it's still taking us some time to figure out what she's saying. She's been working on her ch-, sh-, and hard k sounds, so some words seem to meld or morph into something else which makes it hard to understand. She definitely has the m- and b- words down.

YES: It sounds more like 'yeah' but when you ask Sybilla if she would like ___ she will usually respond with a 'yeah' or 'nah' (we're having trouble shaping our 'o' vowels).

SHOE: We were visiting the Marino family on Wednesday and Billa came inside with one sandal on her foot, the other in her hand, and very distressed over her "schew, schew [whimper]" (and yes, there is a slight ch- with her sh- sounds). She was almost in tears over this. I decided that since we weren't going to be leaving for a bit after all, I would just take the other shoe off. I told her to sit down, which she did, and then took the other sandal off. Tears transformed into happy chatter and smiles and off she went. [sigh] Glad that disaster was easily averted!

TABLE: This morning we were eating break fest and enjoying homemade pumpkin spice cake and Billa climbed up into a chair to get at my latest puzzle, which was still on the table. She climbed up and then patted the table top and said "tay-buh" and then pointed to the puzzle. She only said it once, but we knew what she meant!

CHAIR: This sounds mostly like "schar" which has been confused with "share", so you'll only catch it when it's in correct context. But usually she will say it if she wants to get into the computer chair or a dining room chair.

Other things that we've randomly heard here and there is a better pronunciation of cheese, milk, and we're working on actually saying please, which she did this morning when she said "Plee, Dah-da" when he took my puzzle away from her. And speaking of puzzles, she says that quite often too, especially since they've become a big passion of mine. Which if anyone has some random 1000+ piece puzzles laying around (missing a couple of pieces or not), lemme know...I just might like to take a crack at them!

Well, that's all for now folks! Nighty night,
Kelly