Gibberish and Other Languages

Apparently, according to BabyCenter.com, my 12 month old will soon be uttering recognizable words.  She doesn't seem very interested in copying any sounds that I prompt her with, however.  She babbles pretty much constantly with words of her very own.  I've begun to hear a few of them repeated quite a lot: "zeeboo" is my favorite.  If she wishes to surprise me, instead of shouting "Boo!" the way that Mommy does, she yells "Da!" with a big grin on her face.  Her Grandma Soo insists that "ta-da" is a valid First Word milestone, but I don't agree.  Its cute but completely random.

Gibberish aside, Banjo is able to get her needs met by using signs that we've taught her.  This started at a playdate with some nice mommies I met through Meetup.com.  The theme of the playdate was Signing with Babies; one of many fun outings that Banjo and I had ventured upon in the last few months. She was 10 months old and I hadn't done ANY signs with her up to that point, but when we all sat in a circle and started learning simple signs, Banjo took it in like a sponge.  The leader got out a bottle of bubbles and showed us how to make the sign.  This was her very first experience with bubbles; she stared at them and sucked her thumb.  I didn't know that she connected the idea of the rainbow bubbles to the movement that her fingers and hands needed to make.  However, within 24 hours I saw her doing a strange motion with the fingers of both of her hands.  After puzzling momentarily I realized that she wanted BUBBLES.  I didn't have any in the house, but you can bet that I took the first opportunity to get some at the dollar store and reinforce my baby's new knowledge.

Banjo asked for bubbles almost hourly for that 1st month.  Literally.  I'd go to pick her up out of her crib and her little chubby fingers would be signing for bubbles and her little voice was "hooting" to make sure I was paying attention.  We have added to her signing vocabulary because she seems to love it so much.  As of today, she now uses the following words:

• hat
• food
• please (this is very popular; used a LOT)
• more
• songs (she attempts the finger movements to the Itsy Bitsy Spider)
• book
• banana
• sleep/nap
• bird
• all done
• down
• water
• and of course...hi and bye-bye

She strings her signs together very efficiently these days.  I clip her into her highchair and she asks "please more food" before I even have a chance to fetch down a bowl from the cupboard!  If she feels that her signs aren't being noticed, her hooting noises get more insistent.  Its pretty darn cute.  I can wait a few more months before she starts to say "real" words.

bubbles

please!

hat

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