William's words

William has learned quite a few words and I feel the need to record them for posterity.

Ball ("Bah"): this was William's first word after Mama and Dada and lead to a mild obsession with all things round. He also refers to plums as "Bah" and can often be seen hanging off the the fridge door handle whining "Bah!" "Bah!"

Car ("Cah!"): William has more than a mild obsession with cars. He owns a growing collection of matchbox cars, dollarstore plastic cars, ride-it toys, and various things with steering wheels. He also points to every vehicle that passes by and says "Cah!" This means that on some car trips, William can be heard from the backseat, babbling, "Cah, cah, cah, oh boo cah! Cah, cah, cah."

Dog ("Gah!"): Why is a dog pronounced "gah"? Not sure. But he consistently refers to all dogs (and occasionally other animals) as "gah". He loves dogs, and has no fear of hugging the biggest and scariest-looking ones. Of course I always ask the owner if it's okay first. He gets knocked down frequently, but that doesn't deter him. (Although he sometimes gets fed up with the incessant licking of my parents' jackapoo.)

Cracker ("CahCah"): Similar to the word car, but you take it in context. If William is pointing to the snacks on top of the fridge, he wants a cracker. If he's pointing out the window, or is playing with a Tonka Truck, he's saying car.

Apple ("A-bah"): This is an evolution of the word ball, and can mean any sort of round fruit, including apples, pears, plum, nectarines and peaches. His love of all things fruit may be responsible for his interesting bowel movements, but fruit is good for you so I just deal with the mess.

Up: He says up very clearly. Mostly this means he wants to be picked up and is accompanied by the gesture of reaching his hands in the air. Sometimes though, he uses up to refer to any direction he wants me to follow him. For example, he says "up" and then points downstairs.

Rock ("Guck"): If you live in our neighbourhood, and have a rock garden or a gravel driveway, you may have noticed it is occasionally in disarray, almost as if a toddler has been playing in it. When we go on walks together, William always stops to rearrange any rocks he finds.

More ("Noo-noo"): He uses the sign for more (the only bit of sign language he ever picked up) and always says "noo-noo" at the same time. The sign doesn't just mean that he wants more of something he already has, but is also used to ask for anything and everything.

Yes: Mostly William nods his head for yes and shakes it for no, but if you ask him to say yes, he can say it quite clearly. This is useful because he often does this goofy half-nod, half-head shake, which I guess means maybe. You then ask "Yes?" and he nods and says "yesss".

That's all I can think of right now, but I think I got most of them. Hardly an extensive vocabulary, but Mr. William still prefers the whining and pointing method to get most of what he wants.