Chattin' with Henry

Sometimes I worry that Henry isn't talking enough for his age, but lately he's really started talking more and more. He still usually grunts and whines when he wants something, rather than say the name of the object, but at least I know he can say it. When he wants to go somewhere, he holds up his arms to be picked up, and he says "bye? bye?" He also says "baba...nee-nee" when he wants his bottle and to go night-night. Yesterday, he wanted up into his highchair, so I put him in it, and then asked him, "do you want to EAT?" He just whined while I repeated "EAT? EAT?" several times. Since he wasn't responding, I started to walk away. He immediately called out, "EAT! EAT!" A week or so ago, we were playing, and Henry kept trying to shove a red plastic ball into my mouth. I wouldn't let him, so he started saying, "apple...apple," and sure enough when I looked closely at the ball, it was actually a plastic apple.

After all of this recent talking, I decided to write down the words that Henry has said, and I was shocked at how many there were. He doesn't consistently use these words, but they are all words he's said several times. Here are the words that Henry has said at 20 months old:

Daddy

Dada

Mommy

Momma

Baby

Baba (for bottle)

Nee-Nee (for night-night)

Cacka (for cracker)

Car

Apple

Bubble

Bat (for bath)

Ball

Hi

Bye

Up

Off

Doggy

Two

Free (for three)

Four

Fife (for five)

Seven

Ice

Shoe

Pees (for please)

Cup-ee

Binky

Down

Hot

He-wee (for Henry)

Okay

Uh-oh

Poo-poo

Pee-pee

Wow

Wowee

Nana (for banana)

Dup (for jump)

Tetta (for Stella)

Pasta

Egg

"Mooo" (cow sound)

"Me-You" (cat sound)

"Wow-Wow" (instead of "Bow-Wow" for a dog sound)

"Hush" (when we're reading "Goodnight Moon")

E-I-E-I-O

**Plus, he signs "more," "all done," and "eat"

That's over 40 words! Of course, he hardly ever says them on command. When we're leaving someone, he won't wave or say "bye." I tried to get some recent video of him talking so that I could add it to this post, but he wouldn't cooperate. He's a stubborn one! I wonder where he get that... Jeff? Me? Both of us?