Words are coming!

Ever since staying with Avery et al, we've been wondering when Elliot will get some words. Avery has probably 25 words, including nose, chest, belly, you name it. And if she doesn't know the word, she will immediately attempt the last hard sound. I quickly became "Tee" while staying with them. We remind ourselves, however, that Avery is quite advanced in words and mimics well. Elliot does not. He certainly comprehends everything and it is so cool to see this developmental stage too. He seems to concentrate hard with sounds when he's trying to make a word. "Momma" was very slowly sounded out and took a lot of effort; then it was followed by huge grins of accomplishment.

Elliot has definitely assigned "Momma" and "Dada" to us and will say so on command (most of the time). This is very exciting, of course, since for a long time, he had the sounds but the chair would be momma, the cat might get a dada, and so on.

However, he has other words of his own now too! Well, they are more sounds that he has quickly assigned to items, like "Duh" is his duck in the bath and "Mmoo" is the moon. This is so fun to watch because he has been insisting on the names of things for a while now, taking them all in and proving his comprehension by pointing, but the words were elusive.

Tonight was another fun one too-- he begged with his "eh, eh" for a photo album that Renee made for him last summer. There is just one photo of the two of them, and he turned right to it, pointed as if to ask her name again, and then put the book down and moved on. (Renee has gone to Australia for a bit because of a death in her family, and Elliot hasn't seen her since before Christmas.) A while later, I was getting him dressed after his bath. He very distinctly said, "Nay, Nay" and pointed to the front door. I had Renee on my mind and it dawned on me that he was saying his version of Renee! We tested him, then, and he kept saying, "Nay, Nay" and pointing to the door. The photo of her was still open on the floor, so I said to Elliot, "Show me who you want. Where is she? Is she there?" and he walked over and pointed to her in the photo again. It's so cute that he misses her! He probably called for her 5 different times tonight. How sweet.