Bragging Rights

I have a journal that I write in for Ellie. It's more of a collection of letters to her that I plan to give her one day. I've been terrible at keeping up with it, and am sad at how few letters I've written over the last 15 months of her life.

Ellie is literally learning new words, sounds, and signs every day. She's become a sponge and sometimes I teach her a new word or sign once and she surprises me with how quickly she uses it correctly. For my own records I want to write down all her words and signs at this point. I worked on this list last night and woke up this morning adding a few more that I had left off. I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting, but here's a starting point:

Words she says:
Mama
Da (Dad)
ock (sock)
shews (shoes)
ock (clock)
cheese (when I say snack, she says cheese, her current favorite snack)
new (no)
pa (puff)
ya (yes)
Namy (Amy, as in Aunt Amy)
Bella (Buela)
Bobo (Buelo)
Pop (Hop on Pop-her favorite Dr. Suess book)
eyes
nose
hi
cheeze (cheers, which is always followed with a raised cup and waiting for someone to "cheers" with her)
keys
zzz (zip, as in zipper)
ot (hot)
bah (bath)
choo (train)
bowwowwow (dog)
She does lots of other animal noises, but I won't list them as words.

I've been amazed at how quickly Ellie learns sign language. I keep looking up new words to teach her because she learns them so quickly, and I feel fairly inconsistent with teaching her. I'm sure if I put more effort this list would be even longer. I love the idea of teaching her to communicate with signs when her verbal skills can't catch up with the knowledge she has. The fact that she can correctly sign all these things, listen to and obey commands such as "go get that spoon," or, "take that to your room," shows me how much she understands even if her body limits her to what she can say. With sign language, I'm giving her tools to communicate more than she could otherwise. It also has been shown to increase vocabulary later on because it's creating neural pathways and forming brain connections early. What's not to love?
Words she signs:
hot
bath
ball
eat
more
thirsty
up
off
please
thank you
milk
baby
bye
hi
music/sing
poop
There are a few more she has signed once or twice, but I won't count them until she uses them consistently.

She also can correctly identify many body parts:
eyes
ears
nose
mouth
tongue
teeth
head
hair
belly button
toes
feet

I guess this is enough bragging for one day by this proud mama. Our pediatrician told me today that at 15 months the average baby says "mama," "dada," and maybe three more words. I'm so proud of my verbal girl! I guess she's a lot like her momma.