Survey of the younger kid’s vocabulary at 18 months

I only just re-visited the blog post just after Kiddo turned 1-and-a-half years old surveying his vocabulary and it was a pleasant walk down memory lane. However, when I sent it to my sister who has a 13-month-old, it is less meaningful to her.

Still, I’ve been compiling a list of the words that Baby says and it’s the right time to post it as she turns 18 months old tomorrow. I won’t make in-depth comparisons but it was fun to note at the time the differences between the two kids in terms of interests and priorities. Kiddo had words for vehicles and more English names for animals as a result of watching YouTube during his meals. Baby has an interest in dressing and grooming herself so she has those words.

After reviewing Kiddo’s list and noting that Baby didn’t have the word, I took more notice and it seemed that she has the ability to mimic what I say and is eager to learn more words. Definitely the echoing what I say part as I said over and over “suu suu” (tree) and “sek tao” (rock) as we went for a walk.

Exclamations
– “no” / no (E)
– “beep” / fobbing and pressing buttons on the elevator (X)
– “dap!” / stop (E) – in relation to hearing me often say, “Okay Google … stop”, but she also identified that Googled “dap” when there was silence between two songs playing
– “yaoyao!” / gentle (C) – we tell her to be gentle and she shouts this to remind herself to be gentle or mindeful
– “ba-bye” / goodbye (C)
– “eye” / hi (E)
– “allo” / hello (E) – she pretends to talk into a phone and says, “eye! allo.”
– “whee!” / glee when she’s swinging or sliding (E)
– “aiya” / (C) she might know this is “oops”
– “oops” / oops (E)
– “boeboe” / pick her up to carry her “抱抱!” (C)
– she has “zoe tao” in some fashion for “good night” (C)
– she also has “deh ah” in some fashion which she hears from Kiddo who is often telling us to look at him, what he’s doing, what he’s done with his toys “睇啊!” (C)

People
– “mama” / mom (C)
– “baba” / dad (C)
– “popo” / maternal grandmother (C) – I’m on the phone with my mother every two days after Baby’s bath
– “Keh” / Kimi (X) – her younger cousins she’s terrified of

Objects
– “mutmut” / socks (C) – loves to put them on
– “fehfeh” / pants (C) – loves to put them on, doesn’t have the word for shoes
– “laolao” or is it “yaoyao” / coat (C) – loves retrieve it to wear
– “me me” / hat (C) – very new one she mimicked and understood
– “baybee” / baby or doll (E)
– “pay-pay” / blanket, laying on on her doll or asking us to lay on on her at night “被被” (C)
– “dao dao” / bib “圍兜兜” (C)

Food
– “nainai” / milk or water (C)
– “baobao” / bread (C)
– “cheez” / cheese (E) – hands-down favourite food
– “num num” / what she says when she wants more food (X)

Actions
– “matmat” / wipe face or floor with cloth (C)
– “zeetzeet” / spray her private parts with when diapering (C)
– “wah-wah” / drawing (C) – love this activity on boogie board or those magnetic writers
– “da da” / hit (C)

Animals
– “maomao” / cats, bears, any four-legged creature (C)
– “zeze” / bird (C) – she attempted this really early on
– “roar!” / lion (X) – I think that is her consistent response