18 months

Listening to Thomas' language develop over the last two weeks has been really exciting for us. He has started identifying our dogs and other people by names. Bela is Ba-ba and Greta is Ta-ta. He knows his name is Thomas when asked, but he can't quite say it. Sometimes his name is also Ta-ta. Grandma, or Ga-ga as he calls her, is one of his favorite people. We look at photos of friends and family all the time and I tell him who we are looking at. He tries to say their names but they don't always sound like the real thing and often sound quite similar to all the other names he is trying to say. Grandpa is Pa-pa.

Not only is he beginning to identify people, but he has also started to put words together. He'll point to objects and describe them, such as Mama cup and Dada car.

When we play, I describe the objects and ask him to say the words with me. He does a great job trying to repeat all the same words I say. We mainly focus on shapes and colors, but sometimes we'll also do numbers and other object names.

Some favorites...

• [me] Thomas, would you like some more chicken?
• [Thomas] Bock bock.

• [me] What does a duck say?
• [Thomas] Duck duck.