speech

So far Sophie is saying the following:

• mama
• dada (sometimes pronounced gaga)
• bye bye (buh buh, can also mean baby)
• hi
• grandma (guh-muh!  she always adds the emphasis)
• more (mah)
• blue (buh)

We're working on 

• yes
• dog
• bug

Right now she has a lot of "soft" sounds.  So her vowel sounds are 'ah', 'uh', 'ih' "eh", and not a long a/e/i/o/u.  Mostly she makes 'b' and 'd' consonants.  Sometimes 'g', although it's frequently a 'd', and she does 'f' for both f and s.  She just started 'n' this week, and we're hearing 'yayaya' and 'lalalala' so hopefully y & l are soon.

The most frustrating thing for us is the yes & no situation.  Before she started talking, she had reliable sign language for yes/no and then had learned to shake her head no and was just learning nod your head yes.  Well, after she started speaking, she only wants to say yes & no, and unfortunately they both sound like "deh".  This has been a HUGE step backwards as far as functional communication.  We're excited that she wants to use her voice and recognizes that this is the easier more accepted way, but this has been a lot of frustration for all of us.  Her speech therapist has her working on breaking down yes into its letters.  Sophie doesn't have y yet, so she says "ehh fff" and is starting to do it somewhat regularly for affirmative.

The weird thing is that when she was 1, she could say 's' easily.  We'd ask what does a snake say and she'd go "sssssss", or what does Sophie start with: "sssss".  But around the time she turned 2, she lost it.

Her favorite thing is bye bye though.  She wants to say it to someone as soon as she meets them.  She wants to say it to any bird, animal, etc we see, even inanimate objects.  At school she is now the greeter.  There's a chime on the door, and when she hears it she has to stop and see who's coming in.  And she's more interested in the parents and figuring out for each kid if it's their mommy or daddy that brings them and picks them up.  When we're out in public, any lady she sees is a mama and a man is a dada.  

It's slow going, but it's still so exciting for us.