50 WORDS?

I’ve been getting weekly updates from Babycenter for well over a month now telling me that 2-year-olds, on average, have a working vocabulary of 50 words. Out of curiosity, we decided to count up all James’ words last month (since we had a lot of time to kill in the car on our road trip to Florida), then kept the list going until we posted it today (only one month to go until our little man turns 2-years-old). This is (we think) a comprehensive list of all the words James can say and use correctly. The ones that he commonly uses (daily, or at least a few times per week, and without prompting) are marked in bold. There are plenty that he only uses when we use them first though (he's a great mimic), or are only used occasionally. And there are many other words he knows and understands, but doesn’t speak yet (for example: lips and mouth, which he can correctly point out when we name them, or vacuum, which he will go to if we mention it – he loves the vacuum). He can put up to four words together in a sentence, but usually uses just one or two words at a time.

Not all his words are said perfectly. He has trouble with his R’s, for example, and will say his colors as “wed” and “geen” (or "guh-ween"). 'Ears' sounds like “ee-uhs”, while 'more' sounds like “moh” - man, we’re going to miss that cute little “moh? moh?” when he learns his R’s! Most of his words that end in an “n” he will add an “a” to as well, so that 'fun' sounds like “funa” and 'moon' sounds like “moona” (i love to singa, about the moona and the juna and the springa - hee hee). Adorable, eh? Another cute thing he does is add an "s" to something that shouldn't have it, for instance "sorry's" and "happy's". Some words he shortens, like when dinosaur becomes “saurs”, giraffe becomes “waff”, and elephant becomes "el-phint". But we can understand him easily (usually), and most people who hear him speak can understand most of what he says.

We’ve listed his words into categories to help us remember them better.

Names/nicknames:
Mama/Denise and Dada/Daddy/Jay (he doesn’t use our names, but he repeats us when we’re talking to each other), Baby/Sissy, Jude, Mouton, Ampa , Ma-maw/Mi-maw, Eli, Mamie, Mo (his girlfriend at school, Morgan), Jack (one of his pen pals), Elmo, Buddy, Tiny, Shiny, Don, Ernie, Homie

Body parts:
nose, eyes, belly, belly button, ears, teeth, mouth, toes, feet, knee, butt, penis

Bathroom words:
pee-pee, poo-poo, potty, bath, soap, boogers

Action/descriptive words/phrases:
more, mine, go, boom, owie, peekaboo, please, thank you, welcome, and, up, down, on, off, open, shut, bite, no, all gone, all done, belly full, bye-bye, yes, yummy, yucky, uh-oh, bad, this, that, whoa/wow, race, slide, sit, get down now, eat, hungry, cheers, fun, happy, hi/hey, yay, hot, cold, brr, stuck, help, walk, swing, push, squeeze, blow, excuse you, I love you, oh no, okay, I'm okay, go with daddy, mess, ride, rain, I do, I got it, alright, I'll be alright, be back, cool, color, night, dark, where are you, ready, run, away, sing, sorry, read, morning, home, I don't know, run, help me, night-night, play

Toys, animals, and objects:
boat, bird, ball, light, car, truck, book, bubble, cat/kitty, dog/puppy, giraffe, dinosaur, choo-choo, train, wheel, bus, door, rock, leaf, tree, moon, sun, star, sky, dirt, octopus, bee, bug, balloon, fish, whale, shark, flower, dragon, spider, mouse/mice, shoe, sock, clock, keys, man, fan, rainbow, block, box, airplane, helicopter, lemur, button, owl, stick, caboose, bear, monkey, turtle, wolf, hat, smoke, elephant, lava, zipper, sleep, rubber, trash, digger, motorcycle, duck, sheep

Colors, numbers, and shapes:
red, blue, green, purple, yellow, white, black, one, two, three, five, six, seven, nine, ten, many, circle, oval, diamond, square

Food and drinks:
meat, milk, juice, water, cup, spoon, fork, broccoli, apple, pear, banana, pizza, cheese, dip, snack, cracker, Puffs, bowl, ice

So, his grand total is around 150 words that are used regularly. Pretty cool! I suppose that makes him on the upper end of average as far as vocabulary goes, but I know quite a few Marchies who speak very clearly and in full sentences on a full-time basis, so he's not that ahead of the game. He has some great influences at daycare (his buddy Coltin is 3 months older and speaks really well, and his buddy Gabriel who is 1.5 months younger knows LOTS of words and pronounces them all perfectly), so we're sure that helps. Other than that, all we do is talk to him constantly (but not in baby talk, ever), read with him (letting him interrupt and turn pages at will), question him (but not quiz him), and keep the TV off as much as possible (and watch educational shows as much as possible when it is on). We've found that James learns best when he initiates "learning time" himself, so that's what we go with. And we're all loving it!