What Does a _______ Say?

Parker's Vocabulary at 14 Months

One of the things I’ve looked forward to the most about Parker growing up is hearing him say actual words and expand his vocabulary. It started with just a few — mama, nana (banana), no, dada — but that list is growing quickly.

Say: Parker is obsessed with our golden retriever, Sadie. She usually spends a good amount of time at my in-laws’ house playing with their dog, but since my mother-in-law recently had knee surgery, Sadie has been at our house full-time. No one is happier about this than Parker, who loves to chase after Sadie and tease her with his toys. He calls her and every other dog he sees “Say!”.

Nananana: Not to be confused with “nana” (his word for banana, which he has been saying for quite some time now). Parker hasn’t yet mastered his l sounds, so the “lalalala” part of the Elmo’s World song is “nananana” instead.

Shoe: This boy loves shoes. He actually cooperates when we put them on his feet, and he even tries to put on other people’s shoes, while saying the word “shoe”.

Hi: His little voice is the cutest, but especially when he says hi. He knows exactly what it means and uses it in the correct context.

Byebye: This is a runner-up to hi for cutest word.

And then there are the sounds he knows. This is probably a very normal developmental milestone for a baby his age, but I still think it’s amazing that Parker can answer these questions:

What does a cow say?” Moo!

“What does a kitty say?” Meow!

“What does a doggy say?” Woof!

What does a train say?” Choo choo!

“What does a birdie say?” Tweet tweet tweet!

“What does a duck say?” Quack quack quack!

Parker will even make these sounds when he sees a picture or toy version, especially cows. He knows the ones I listed by heart, but he can pretty much imitate (or at least attempt to imitate) just about any word or sound. It’s fun to see which ones stick. I can’t wait to see where his language development is in just a few months.