Sweet 16

Half-O is 16 months old today – and she is quite sweet! Also, she talks up a storm. I have a feeling she is more communicative now than she will be when she is actually 16. She even tries multiple approaches if I didn’t get it right the first time. For example, her “duck” and “dog” are pretty similar and without context, I don’t always know which one she is saying. But if I choose the wrong one, then she proceeds to make the accompanying animal sound so we can be on the same page.

So here are my 16 favorite things that she says (my 16 current faves in no particular order):

1. Buffalo (because she so carefully enunciates each syllable and gives the last one extra oomph – flings it off her tongue)
2. Quesadilla (this is a pretty new one and often she pronounces it in the common incorrect gringo fashion - as if she read it – because that's not how I pronounce it)
3. Escalator (it doesn’t always come out right – she sometimes gets a little tongue tied and the syllables reverse. Also, she has a bit of a lisp so that adds cuteness)
4. Hippa hoppa loot at foo foo go (her version of the Peter Cottontail song)
5. There it is (because often it’s said in an pleased whisper)
6. I don’t know (because she condenses it to one word and goes up an octave in the process)
7. Hello (she often says it like Jerry’s girlfriend’s stomach is imagined to say it in that one Seinfeld episode)
8. When she doesn’t know the answer to “what does ___ say?,” she responds with “Hi”
9. Okay Okay (it is her version of yes. When I ask her if she wants to do something and she does, she responds with an excited “Okay, Okay”)
10. Cereal (because at Target the other day, we got off the escalator and as we walked towards the food section, I wondered aloud “what food did we need to get?” and she answered “ceweal” – which I had forgotten about, but it had been one of the original purposes of the trip.)
11. Tank you, mama (because yeah!!! Often she says it not when I give her something but when she returns it to me)
12. Pee Whew (this is what a skunk says)
13. Duh nuh, duh nuh (this is what a shark says)
14. Sam-a-lam (Sam-I-Am)
15. Her counting – if there are two things she'll usually stop at two, but otherwise she’ll go to 10 regardless (though almost always skips 5), and if there are still stairs to climb/count, she goes back to 2 and kind of jumps around in the count.
16. Be Still (what Max says to the Wild Things – she always accompanies it with a raised hand)