Simon’s Words.

August 24, 2009.

It’s been several weeks since I first wrote this list down and tacked it up over my work desk. To say we’ve been busy is an understatement. It seems like whenever there is a break in the daily grind my wife and I find someway of filling the void. Whether we are taking the kids somewhere, visiting family, or starting or finishing a new project for others, or ourselves we are always busy, it seems. Regardless, as of August 24, 2009, the day I stopped tracking Simon’s word usage, he speaks (spoke) 50 words. Just for comparison purposes, according to the What to Expect book, Simon should be able to use one to three words and may be able to use up to six words. Doing the math, Simon’s vocabulary usage is 8.3 times that of the average 17 month-old.

His Words:

Mom, Dad, flower, fish, book, geese, bird, cat, dog, pig, horse, elephant, duck, seeds, bug, bottle, cup, baby, bear, water, beach, no, up, boo boo, bubble, bumble bee, wave, boat, chip, yes, done, bye-bye, hi, shoes, ball, balloon, truck, car, Stitchy (our cat), pee pee, moon, rock, tractor, cow, bunny, belly, powder, rain, Mary, park, Simon, Taylor, hot, swing, and slide.

What is interesting to me is not the number of words he knows, but how he is learning new words every week. Unlike Taylor, Simon’s working vocabulary at 12 months old was almost non-existent. If I remember correctly, he could speak … maybe … four to six words: mom, dad, Stitchy (our cat), and puppy. Taylor, on the other hand, had an impressive vocabulary– one I was certainly proud of and told everyone I knew. Memory fails me with how many words she could use, but I do remember how her vocabulary usage steadily decreased from when she was 12 months to 18 months old. The number of words she could use dwindled so much and so fast that I worried about it and researched why this was happening. The answer was quite simple: During this time period, as toddlers explore the world around them their word usage may subside and even ease until their gross and fine motor skills catch up to their cognitive skills. Looking back, that’s exactly what happened with Taylor. She never crawled; she could walk by her ninth month and run with ease by her first birthday. And for the six months after her first birthday she was engrossed by anything and everything that forced her to figure out and manipulate items with her hands. She loved puzzles, building blocks, and other creative type toys.

Simon, on the other hand, was a crawling champ. That boy could creep around the apartment like a mouse hiding from a hungry cat one second and then take off like his pants were on fire the next. He spent more time trying to bawl-over his sister’s building blocks, to her frustrations and dismay, than attempt to put the pieces together. The boy was a brick. Everything, and I mean everything– the cat, Taylor, Mom or Dad– was pushed or bullied out of his way. He was a tank, unstoppable.

It wasn’t until after his first birthday that he started, I mean really started, using his words. And during the same time period that Taylor was losing words Simon is gaining words. I can’t wait to see what happens when he turns 18 months old– the same age Taylor was when her word usage flourished. Will his word usage bloom like Taylor’s or will it diminish? I just don’t know. Like everything else, we’ll see what happens in a couple of months.