Jeneva and Her Vocabulary

Our little 17 month old girlie is such a joy to all of us. She is growing up so fast and has a personality all her own! Lately she has begun expressing herself a lot more through language. She can understand almost any "normal or typical" instruction and can say a few words herself.

Vocabulary: Some of her favorite animal sounds to make are "kack-kack" (duck), "meow" (for cat said in a very high voice), "oo-oo" (for dog said in a really low voice), and "moooo" (for cow).

She loves to say "tickle, tickle, tickle!" while tickling one of us.

If one of us is down on the floor, she runs over to climb on our backs. Once she is holding on tight she says, "Go! Go!"

Of course, she says "Dadda," "Momma," "Dule (Jewel), "Dane" (Jane), "Danda" (Gandalf), and "Lilla" (Lillie, her friend at church).

She says "nana" for banana, "taint you" for thank you, "done" after her diaper has been changed, "gone" when she finishes her food.

She says, "no" (for yes and no) and "uh, uh" (for yes and no). You just have to look at her expression to determine what she really means!

She says, "book" and "Bible" and "bubble."

She says, "hi" and "bye."

She makes all sorts of other somewhat intelligible sounds that I am not thinking of right now. Somtimes they don't sound like the word at all, but she says them consistently for that particular thing.

She also enjoys pointing to different parts of her body when prompted: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair, tummy, hands, and feet.

Update: I have thought of several other words since I posted this, and since I can happen to think of a few of them at this particular moment, I thought I better jot them down (for memory's sake). One of her first words was "uh-oh" (I can't believe I forgot that one!). She also says, "nigh- nigh" (night night), "cold," and "boo!"

Playtime: In addition to her vocabulary, she is learning all sorts of other things. She loves to color alongside her sisters, play with babies, play in the bathtub, go outside, get into (and reorganize) school supplies, look at books, play with cell phones, and ultimately make lots of messes. She loves stools and chairs and has discovered they are very useful in reaching things.

But above everything, she loves her pacifier. She is our first baby to ever take a pacifier so this "weaning from a pacifier" is a new thing for us. She just loves it so much. We try to keep it in her bed and just let her have it at naps and bedtime, but she always finds a way to get it! And she is most happy and content when she has one pacifier in her mouth and a spare one in her hand. She is so silly!

Eating habits: Jeneva eats pretty well. Like Jane, she loves to "dip" her foods. She is bad about whining for more of what she likes best on her plate and not finishing her less desired food, however if we don't comply with giving her more, she will usually work on the other foods on her plate. Whenever anyone at the table gets another scoopful of something, she holds her plate up demanding an extra spoonful as well. Many times just tapping the empty serving spoon on her plate will satisfy her and will be greeted with a "taint you" (thank you). Jeneva loves to use her eating utensils. She doesn't use her hands unless she is really hungry and having a hard time getting her food on her fork or spoon.

Sleeping habits: Jeneva is finally sleeping through the night. Occasionally, she will wake in the night for a few seconds but will usually go back to sleep on her own. For a while she was waking about 5:30 or so and would not go back to sleep until we feed her breakfast, then she would happily go back to sleep once her tummy was full for another hour or two. Thankfully, she has been sleeping until 7 or 7:30 lately (which is really nice!). Some days Jeneva has one nap and other days she takes two. It just really depends. It seems like lately she is moving toward a pretty long 2+ hour nap and goes down around 11 or 12.