Sophia's Vocabulary

This post will appeal more to the relatives. I just wanted to record all of Sophia's words as her vocabulary blossoms! She is 14 months old now.

I expected Sophia to be quite verbal both because of her personality and all the great stimulation she receives from her dad and brothers, but it's taken me by surprise. I haven't really ever lived with such a talkative one year old, since my special needs sisters talked late, and the other had to start over at 9 months learning a new language (English). Then in the Baby Home, we do our best, but without the one-on-one attention of one caregiver, babies will always be speech delayed.

Words she uses frequently and easily:

1. dada (the very first!)
2. hola
3. apple
4. Shaggy (our neighbor's dog in our shared backyard, but she uses it for ALL dogs!)
5. wow
6. cracker (minus the "r" sound)
7. caca (pronounced similarly to the word above - only context really clarifies which it is, ha!)
8. chau
9. cat
10. uh-oh
11. mama (Will chant it sometimes, like when in her crib, but otherwise she has never directly used it when talking about me or getting my attention. I say it's because any ol' scream or holler will bring me quickly enough!)

Today she used "uh-oh" in the cutest way! She wasn't going to sleep for her morning nap. At first I was trying to ignore her because I knew she was plenty tired, but she was getting more wound-up. As I walked in, she got up off of her stomach, with her hand down the back of her crib, and pointed, saying very sadly "uh-oh!" BOTH of her favorite pacifiers were stuck out of her reach. I saved them and she settled back down to sleep with a huge smile, having successfully communicated. Love it!

These are words she has said several times, just not as daily as the others:

1. okay
2. gracias
3. thank you ("danku")
4. no
5. si
6. bye-bye
7. cheese (pronounced "chee")
8. quack-quack
9. baby (not pronounced real great, but it's 2 b sounds followed by a vowel sound - she'll have enough practice soon enough!)
10. doggy
11. gato (cat in Spanish)
12. agua (water in Sp)
13. auto (car in Sp)
14. eyes (because she loves playing "eyes, nose...MOUTH!" Yesterday I only said the word "mouth" in passing, and she immediately said "eyes" and pointed to hers!)
15. nasty (guess who taught her that one?!)

Signs she knows and uses all the time (SO cute! have to get a video soon):

1. more
2. food
3. all done
4. sleep

She immediately learned sleep the day I taught it to her, so I need to keep up the new signs.

She has her own signal to tell us to "come" to her, and of course she loves waving! Some days she's really in the mood to vigorously nod "yes" or "no", too. The brothers have fun playing around with that one!

A few days ago, Michael sighed real big and said "Sophia, I wish that you would just TALK, so that we could understand what you want, instead of you just CRYING!" Amen! But she's working on it, that's for sure.

And because no blog post about Sophia is complete without pictures, a few pictures of our crazy, fun baby from December thus far:

She loves saying - and eating - apples!

(trying to) feed herself pasta for lunch, because that is SO much better than being dependent on mom

First time on a bike (and of course she loved it)

At her first friend birthday party

Bed head!!

Checking out the flowers. She loves playing outside!

Michael, Samuel, Joel, Sophia

Christmas picture with mama