islandhippy

We want to record down Olive's first few intelligible words, other than the goo goos and ga gas, so we can have a good giggle in years to come. Olive could roar when shown a picture of a lion from ten months but didn't start saying any intelligible words, the first being ball then mama, until about 14 months. Now, at 16 months, she has a better vocabulary but can't string words together ... it's either 'more' or 'please' not 'more please'! Of course Olive understands a lot and can chat to herself or to her toys in her own funny language, which I suspect is a derivative of Xhosa owing to the prominence of click consonants.

first recognizable noise:
animal noises (lion, dog, cat)

first batch of intelligible words (at 14 months):
ball
mama

second batch of intelligible words (at 16 months):
animal noises (sheep, horse, cow, snake, lizard)
bath
bear bear (the bear she uses for comfort at night)
bib
bird
bot (short for robot)
dada
dog
Don Don (neighbour's kid)
door
duck
gone
gong gong (grandpa in Mandarin)
knock
me
more
Nel (her godfather in London)
no (usually 'nooooooooo')
please
po po (granny in Mandarin)
there
wa wa (babies)
walk
wow
Zo Zo (cousin Oscar's sheep)