Isabelle's Vocabulary!

Isabelle is now almost 15 months old, and all of the sudden, we are noticing that she is saying single words, fairly distinctly! She has been saying Momma and Da-da, bye-bye and something like "brother" for months, seemingly ("Helena" and "sister" seem more difficult, though she does try!) She has been saying "go" for several weeks, too, usually while pointing in a specific direction. But lately, she has added "shoe," "toes," "juice," "dog" and "ball." She tries to say bird--she loves birds. One day in the car she was talking and laughing and pointing up. I looked, only to see a tiny little bird on top of a stop light! As for phrases, she says "Here you go!" when she hands something to someone.

What's really cute about her new words is that she blurts them out, and it is never a mystery what she's saying. She will point to Phelan's foot and say "toes!" or to a ball and say "ball!" And if she is in her high chair and her cup is in the living room, she points and says, "juice!" She has always been amazingly expressive.

She also sings. She tries to sing "Frere Jacques"--her favorite song--and does so remarkably well! One day, she was singing it in the car and I could tell exactly what she was trying to sing! Big sister knows that this is her favorite song, too, so when Isabelle cries--especially if she cries from having a toy taken away or being knocked down--Helena will sing "Frere Jacques." Helena has been singing "Frere Jacques" for a while, too--in English and French. Her first song was "Old MacDonald," though! When she was younger, Helena would sing "Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Phelan John! Phelan John!" (Because, of course, Phelan is "brother"!)

And Helena, these days, says too much to be able to record. But yesterday, when I asked whether she wanted to go back & watch her Beatrix Potter DVD, she said, "Not really. . ." :)