Angel's vocabulary list

My girl has started saying so many new words recently that I thought I should form a list just so I can remember next time. Well, not that I can understand all of what she's saying since I cannot interpret baby language though I think I'm getting good at it. Still, she has begun talking in fuller sentences and sometimes, it really warms our hearts and makes us laugh out loud when she makes an unexpected string of words.

Never undermine kids, they actually are much smarter than you imagine.

Before she was 1

- The baby 'goo's and 'ga's

- Her first word was 'mama'. Or so I presumed. Soon came 'papa'.

- One of her best words was 'byebye'.

- Also a series of 1-2 syllabus words that we couldn't really decipher


At 16 months

- She could say 'please' and '谢谢' (thank you)

- A common word she used was '要' (I want), which I much preferred to the next word she picked up '不要' (I don't want)

- She was able to name some animals like '牛' (cow), '鸭' (duck), '狗' (dog), '猫' (cat), '大象' (elephant), '羊' (sheep), '蛇' (snake), '鸡' (chicken)

- My favourite was how she could mimic all the animal sounds like 'Mooooo', 'Meh meh', 'Meow' etc. Watch her doing that here. I simply loved how she couldn't distinguish between '老虎' and '老鼠' (tiger and mouse) and she would 'roar' at either word.

- If you asked her what does 'A' stand for, she could answer 'Apple'. But if you try 'B', she would say 'Duck duck'.


At 18 months

- She could call the names of almost everyone in the family. From the grandparents (阿公, 爷爷, 婆婆, 阿嬷), to uncle and aunties (Ah-pek, 伯母, 姨姨, Uncle), to brothers and sisters (Korkor, 姐姐, 弟弟, 妹妹).

- She pronounces her 'G' and 'K' as 'T' instead. For instance, 'korkor' (brother) becomes 'tortor', 'gai gai' (to go out) becomes 'tai tai'. My mum said this was exactly what I did when I was younger.

- One of her favourite words was 'Baby'.

- She has this pet name for grapes since young. We taught her to say 葡萄, which is grape in chinese, but she ended up calling them 'Pia pia' ever since. Even now. Ok, I admit we couldn't help it but use the pet name sometimes too.

- She also likes to call 'Banana' as 'Nana' instead which we found to be pretty common among toddlers.

- She is able to hymn to a number of nursery songs and what she does best is to help me sing the last 1-2 words of every line. For example, I would sing "London bridge is falling..." and she would sing "down". Or we would sing Barney's infamous song "I love you, you love me, we're happy family". Yeah, she sings those in red.

- She can say affectionate words like 'Hug', 'Kiss' and 'Sayang' (meaning to pat gently). That is probably cos' I do that to her 1,000 times a day and ask her to do the same to me and daddy too. =)


At 22 months

- She has become a little chatterbox and it kinds of amazes me what new words she can come up with everyday. Now, she is capable of stringing more than 5 words together, like:

- '妈妈的, Angel 的'. (This is mummy's, that is Angel's) She loves to point to things and say things like this.

- '爸爸妈妈, 一样的' (Daddy and Mummy have the same) She would point to the soup we are drinking, the pants we are wearing, or even to each of our eyes/ears and say '一样的' (same same).

- Once we brought her out and she went '涵涵没有来' (Hanhan never come) Hanhan is one of her good friends in Sweden and it was the first time she stringed 5 words together!

- She can recite from 1-10 in English (thanks to Barney and Brainy Baby) and well, she surprised us by reciting from 1-10 in Mandarin one day without any prompting at all!

- For her ABCs, she can sing around half of the alphabet song and recognise letters like A, H, O, P, Y, R, C, and L in flashcards and on the computer keyboard.

- One of the best lines she can say, or even shriek, is 'Mummy, 来' (Mummy, come!)

- She has mastered a few Swedish words like 'Tack tack' (thanks), 'Vi ses' (see you) and 'Hej do' (Byebye). Never fails to get squeals of joy from the locals here.

- She has also learnt to say 'I love you' and '爱你', which I probably get her to rehearse 50 times a day by saying she loves me

- We try to speak with her mainly in Mandarin and now her Chinese vocabulary list includes: '球' (ball),  '蚂蚁' (ant), '鼓' (drum), '老鼠' (mouse), '太阳' (sun), '奶瓶' (milk bottle), '鸡蛋' (egg), '车' (car), '袜子' (socks), '虾' (prawn) and so on

- She says cute lines like '我美美' (I am beautiful) and '香香公主' (Nice-smelling Princess, which is what I call her after a bath) Ok. Only she can say it and yet be cute. If I do likewise, it will probably turn out pretty gross.

- She has also started using adjectives like '大的' (big one), '小的' (small one), '甜甜的' (sweet), '苦苦的' (bitter) and '咸咸的' (salty). Well, but sometimes her measurement of size and taste buds can get jumbled up though.

- She is apparently very good at saying '跌到了' (fall down), ending with a loud 'P-o-m-p' sound (the sound of falling). Isn't it cute how kids, after falling down, run up crying 'Mummy, pain pain' and then point to a part of their body which is completely not where they had fallen on?
 
- Her recently most used word is 'cheers', after I taught her to use her mug to cheers with mine when we were drinking. Ended up she used literally everything to cheers. From a spoon, chopstick, bowls to books, toys and balls, she would take one in her hand, give me one and we would cheers. Just last night, we were eating grapes and she decided to do a 'grape toast'. And this morning, we did a cheers when we were washing up. Using our toothbrushes.

- Thanks to daddy, she is good at saying 'Liverpool' and 'Goal'. She would also raise up her both arms when she screams 'goal'. The only thing is, she jumps for joy even when the opposition team scores. 

- Last but not least, she is also very good at repeating what I say. That means she can actually speak a long string of words by repeating word by word after me. For instance, if she wants a sweet, I might ask her to say '妈妈, 我可以吃糖吗? 我今天很乖, 你可以给我糖吗? Please. 谢谢, 妈妈. I love you.' (Mummy, can I have a sweet please? I'm a good girl today, so can you please give me one sweet? Thank you mummy. I love you.) That is provided she doesn't get impatient before she finishes the line and resorts to the crying method instead.

There, as you can see, my little girl is really growing up and speaking more everyday! I'll come back and add on to the list next time, meanwhile I still have lots of studying to do before I can pass the BB202 module - Interpreting baby language with flying colours. Till more of kids' talk!