We hear about other friends’ babies talking and worry that Jack doesn’t talk yet.  It’s not that we’re fretting, but there’s a twinge of “oh! why isn’t MY kid saying words yet?  So I made a list to make us feel better.  Apparently, speech therapists include signs and animal sounds in their word count.  Jack just turned 16 months old.  And he’s still the best, even if he doesn’t have many words.

Words
Jack’s only, but much repeated, word
Da = dog, dad, cat, animal, baby, . . . thing

Said a few times but not consistently
Buh = ball

Said once
Joo = juice
Nana = banana
Bohk = book
Weeza = weasel 
Kittah = kitty

Animal sounds
Strongly knows with animal name verbalized OR shown picture prompt
Wolf = howls with head back
Tiger = roars with claws (kind of a “raaah”)
Monster = growls with claws (more of a “graaaw”)
Dog = woof

Knows weakly with verbal sound demonstration AND picture prompts
Monkey = ooo or hah with body bobbing
Owl = haaa
Sheep = bah

Signs
More (which he morphed into “want” and uses when being polite, kind of like “please”)
Drink (also morphed to “want” when he strongly wants something)
Sleep
Thank you (with prompting)
Up
All done

 Left: Wolf                                      Right: Monster