random verbal accomplishments

When Susan came down this morning, Exie and I were sitting in the corner of our kitchen/dining room, where most of Exie’s toys live. As usual, Susan asked what we had been doing so far this morning. I replied that we’d been working on letters and numbers and then I said to Exie, “Can you go get the paper that we were using to show the difference between ‘2′ and ‘Z’?” To my surprise, she ran over to another part of the room where there were a few pieces of paper on the floor, picked up the right one, and brought it back. Zowie. We’re used to her being able to follow simple (usually one-step) directions, but this was significantly more complicated. Next time I’ll see if she can grab the broom and sweep out the garage.

So I figured this was a good time to compile some of the random notes I’ve been keeping about verbal stuff.

• 8/9/09 (“bow-wow”) & 8/16/09 (“waffle”): first two-syllable words in which the first and second syllables aren’t the same
• 9/2/09: first phrase: “he tang” (“drink soup” in Mandarin)
• 9/10/09: “Yeh Yeh” (“Grampa” in Mandarin, or more specifically, “father’s father”). She started saying this within 15 minutes of hearing it. Previously, she didn’t have a word for “Grampa” since she can’t yet say “Pigah” (the traditional family word for “Grampa” ever since Josh, my sister’s oldest, first decided that “Pigah” was a lot easier to say than “Grampa”).
• 9/13/09: first identification of a written number (“Nine”). Oh yeah.
• 9/20/09: first contraction (“Ma bau”). “Mama” means “mother” in Mandarin, too. And “bau bau” means hug or hold. So I guess that “ma bao” means “Mommy, hold me.”
• 9/25/09: Nola says “Exie.” Nola is one of Exie’s playgroup pals, and the first one to vocalize Exie’s name. Nola is quite advanced in her speaking already!
• 10/17/09: first unsolicited thank you. Actually she said “Xie xie” (“Thank you” in Mandarin). Fittingly, she said it to the person at the Taiwanese restaurant as they handed us our food to-go. She also says “Kanku” quite frequently, but so far only when prompted.
• 10/23/09: shapes and colors right more than wrong: She’s known the words for most simple shapes and colors for a while, but now she’s actually starting to answer correctly when we point at a particular shape or color instead of blurting out a random word. She still doesn’t have it completely figured out, but she’s correct about 75% of the time now.
• 11/26/09: She stepped on the digital scale, looked it for a while, pointed, and loudly stated, “One!” Indeed, there was a number one on the scale.