in a matter of speaking

I'm thinking ahead to Elijah's next doctor appointment, where I know I will be asked such questions as: "Does he feed himself with a fork? Does he ask for what he wants? How many words does he use?"

And so I'm preparing.

We've been working on using utensils to eat. Not much success yet. But we'll keep at it.

And so I'm not caught off-guard when she asks about his speech, I've started compiling a list of his words now (you know, so I'm not all "uh, um, let me think [counts on fingers], er, uh, I'm not sure." like a big ole dork.) And here's the list, numbered of course.

1. Mamma - most often used by a mile
2. Dadda - sometimes pronounced Daddo
3. More
4. Hot
5. Bye-bye
6. Nie-Nie
7. Water - sometimes wah-wah - or the British pronunciation wah-tah
8. Annie - ba-ba - we still haven't figured out why he made this up
9. Bite
10. Back - when he wants me to come back
11. Tent - one of his newest!
12. Dog
13. Cat - "key key key ca"
14. Turkey
15. Duck
16. Pop Pop
17. Hab dat
18. Wass dat?
19. Ah Lub Oo (sometimes combined, ie: Ah lub oo mamma. or Ah lub oo dat. etc)
20. Uh-oh
21. Poop - yes, totally in context too
22. Lion - aka "Lah-lon"
23. Banana - just like that "banana" what a big boy!
24. Apple - "bap bo"
25. Shoe - "who"
26. Sock
27. Bath
28. Bird
29. Cookie - "cook coo"
30. Cracker - similar to cookie but more like "cak-ah"
31. umm good
32. Moo
33. Milk
34. Ball
35. Hot dog
36. Book
37. Fan
38. Fish
39. Noodle
40. Balloon - "b'oon"
41. Passy - "pah-sah"
42. Blanket - "bah-da"
43. Cook
44. Hi
45. Knife

The only signs he really uses frequently are: more, all done, please, chicken (which, by the way, isn't the real sign for chicken at all), and bath.