The evolution of (Fin's) language, part 1

Fin has been a pretty verbal kid from early on. His first word was Mama (yea!) at about 10 months old and he's been talking ever since. I quit counting his words at about 14 months because he had so many, especially when you added in all his BabySigns and animal sounds as well.

Our pediatrician had told us that he would expect him to be saying 2-3 word "sentences" by his 2nd birthday. At his 2-yr check up last year, we told the doc that Fin was already saying 8-9 word sentences pretty regularly. Dr. C said that put him at the verbal level of a 3.5 yr old.

Immediately after the appointment, I wondered if I was just imagining that he was putting that many words together because I want him (as all parents do, I think) to be amazing. But the next day we were riding in the car and the stared thoughtfully at the sippy cup in his hand and said, "milk and juice take turns in the purple cup."

Yep! That's nine words! And my 2 year old understood the concept of taking turns (he'd had both milk and juice from the same cup that morning) and knew the color purple! Yea!

So since that confirmation, I've just accepted that he really is a verbal kid and enjoyed the many amusing things that come out of his mouth.

I also noticed a really cute verbal evolution from him. When he was younger, he would point to pictures in books and grunt when he wanted to know what something was called. The grunt eventually morphed into "Dat" which then became "dat?" as he grasped the concept of asking questions.

He then started with "what dat?" and then "what's that?"

Finally, after hearing, "That's a ...." as a response so many, many times in his life, a few months ago Fin started asking, "What's that a?" and even "What is it a?"

LOL - he knows the article comes before the word so he supplies it for us! He's been doing this for about 4-5 months now and it's still cute every time he asks.