Amazing Natalie Update :)

Some days Natalie just amazes me when she says a series of new words. I haven't made a list in a bit, so I thought I'd work on one. So many things about her language amaze me. Sometimes its that she comes out with a word as if she's always known it, but just never bothered to say it. Other times, its the way she puts her words together in phrases, or long rambles to tell a story. I've also been thinking about her number of words for when the doctor brings up the subject at her appointment in a couple months. At her 18 month appointment, he just wanted to know if she had 6 words and she had almost 100. So, I'd like to have a rough idea to answer his question.

Body Parts
head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, checks, ears, neck, tummy, arm, hand, leg, foot, back, bum, armpit

Animals (bolded are the ones she also makes the noises for)
tail, kitty, dog, cat, puppy, frog, bear, moose, sheep, cow, pig, chicken, penguin, pigeon, butterfly, elephant, hippo, zebra, turtle, peacock, goldfish, tiger, duck, goat, goose, rabbit, bunny, giraffe, bug, dragon, dinosaur, snake

Colors
red, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, white, (orange?)

Numbers
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10

Shapes
star, heart, circle, triangle

Food
cereal, muffin, cake (cupcake or pancake), banana, apple, grape, peach, yogurt, booty (Pirate's Booty), cracker, MMs, cookie, milk, juice, beans, peas, broccoli, carrots, rice, toast, waffle, tea, pear, strawberry, melon (watermelon), pumpkin, bacon, jam / jelly, berry, raisins, cheese, cereal

Songs (all incomplete, but recognizable)
ABCs, Twinkle Little Star, Ba Ba Black Sleep, Wheels on the Bus, Row Your Boat, Ring a Round the Rosey, Happy Birthday

Verbs
coming, stop, draw, paint, try, walk, talk, run, jump, drive, move, read, watch, carry, take, wash, sit, cook, make, brush, buckle (as in straps on a seat), kick, go, wear

Opposites:
Hi / Bye; On / Off; Up / Down; Open / Close (or Shut); broken / fix; clean / messy

Emotions:
Sad, Happy, Mad

Phrases
Bless you; ready, set, go; hide seek; I sorry; high five

Other single words
home, sleepy, funny, story, movie, please, back (return), pee, poop, messy, diaper, potty, telephone, help, mine, awake, blankie, busy, reach, machine, robot, toy, sink

A perfect example of Natalie's awesome communication. Today our home visitor dropped in at play group and asked Natalie if she went swimming this weekend. Natalie says: "pool suit kick feet jump" with lots of repeating and mumbling in between each word. Its just so amazing that she can now really tell you about something she's done!

Here are other awesome things she's been doing:

• Rolling cars on the floor and making them vroom. This also includes putting dolls in and out of her new Little People bus.
  
• Roll playing with dolls including putting them in and out of the house, off and on the toy furniture, making them hug and kiss each other, and making the baby cry and call for momma or dadda
• Wanting to dress and undress her dolls
• Pretend play with food, including throwing her first real tea party this morning where she set up three toys around the tea try
• Dress up - mostly with sunglasses, purses, and shoes
• Coloring in pictures with purpose
• Identifying family relationships in pictures such as pointing out the mother, father, sister, and brother in If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
• Awesome use of fork and spoon
• How to care for a baby - rock, hugs, pat on back, tuck in, diaper, bottles, bath
• Putting shoes on and off by self some of the time and sometimes correct feet
• Take her shirt off by herself
• Drink from a straw, including getting a hang of not tilting a straw cup
• Talking consistently in two word phrases such as Elmo juice, Momma hand, Ariel movie, Gabba watch
• This isn't really a skill, but Natalie now faces front in the car
• Natalie has also had some really awesome listening recently. Things like coming over and sitting down to get her diaper changed before we can go out.
  
• She's also doing well right now with putting single toys back where they belong and putting food she doesn't want back on her plate.
• At play group today, Natalie made the train cars go along the track for the first time.