The Art of Conversation... With Abigail

The Babblegail is three days shy of turning 19 months old. A few weeks ago David and I counted the words in her vocabulary. We knew she was a chatterbox – we wanted to see just how much of one. Over several days, we counted 110 recognizable words that she uses to communicate, not including names of family members or animal sounds. (If we added those in it would have been at least 30 more words.) We stopped counting after a while because we realized she was learning a new word or two every day.

Can the average listener interpret all her words? I don't know. But here are some of my new favorites.

At dinner:

Abigail is in her high chair, chugging a cup of milk. She burps. She looks at me, surprise in her bright eyes, and says, “Bup!”

“Did you burp?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she answers.

“After your burp you should say, 'Excuse me'. That’s the polite thing to do.”

She thinks for a moment, looks at me thoughtfully and burps again.

"What do you say?" I prompt her.

"Ah-boogie!” she says, and smiles.

Also at dinner:

Abigail is learning how to use a spoon and is eating yogurt. Most of the yogurt is ending up everywhere but her mouth. It's a rather sloppy affair, and Abigail knows it. Each night, she looks down at her tray, up at me, and says, "UH OH! It a bih meh!"

At bedtime:

Abigail is in her crib, pulling her blanket up to her face.

“Night night Daddy. Ub-ew, Daddy,” she says.

“I love you too, Abigail,” Daddy answers, smiling.

A pause.

“Fwee!” she cries happily.

And another pause.

“Nine!”

In other news, Abigail is also developing her own sense of style. She chose these shoes and hat the other day.

 I think she gets it from her Aunt Lauren.