What did you say?

There is a lot going on in Jaden's world right now. At his eighteen month appointment, the doctor said not to worry about language development just yet. He said the world is still too exciting at this age for a toddler to focus on coherent communication. As he was telling me this, Jaden was destroying the doctor's office. I know words and phrases and sentences come quickly at some point in the next year or so. Our two-year-old neighbor can carry on a better conversation than many of the high school students I used to teach. But, for now, we get constant jibber-jabber that is only occassionally understandable. Nonetheless, it is outstanding in my book. Here is Jaden's list of words at eighteen months, complete with a mother's translation:

• "Dada": By far his favorite word. Morning. Noon. Night.


• "Ba": Mom. No joke. All the time.


• "Mama": Rarely. Usually when extremely sad.


• "Zhar-Zhar": Charlie. The dog.


• "Ahhhhh": Said in a high-pitched squeal. It equals Alan. The cat.


• "Zhruh": Truck. Usually screamed. Clapping follows.


• "Buh": Bus. More clapping.


• "Ba": Ball. Not to be confused with mom.


• "Nigh-Nigh": So cute.


• "Nnnah": Said emphatically. Means "outside" or "downstairs".


• "Muh": Moo. Like a cow.


• "Duh": Duck.

I'm sure there are a couple more, but this is pretty much it right now. We did teach him a few signs which he uses often. He even made up two of his own. The cutest one is when he sees a cat he pretends to take a "catbath" and licks his "paws." Honestly, toddlers are so cute...until they aren't. Which is list for another day.