Alex's Word Quiz

Back in September 2007 when Will was about 18 months old, we posted his first 50 words. Now, as we are continuously comparing our children, we realize that, according to Dan, Alex seems to be into sentences. So, I thought I would quiz Alex on words even though he is only 15 months old.

Will only words in blue. Will and Alex words in red. Alex only words in green.
hey, hi, hello, bye bye
dad, mom, baby, dude, Asha, Sidney, Alex
ball, box, block, truck, book, bubble, balloon, slide, swing
go, shoes, up, down, door, this way, outside, step, open
car, key, airplane,
llama, bird, dog, puppy, bee, bear, dinosaur (di-di), duckie
no, mine, me, you, oh-oh, oh no, thank you, please, more, yeah, I, all done
bump, ding, beep, pop, crash, dance, boom (the sound dinosaurs make when they walk)
bath, shower, towel, blanket
nose, eye, ear, teeth,
chair, food, hot, eggs, cheese, banana, cracker, water, milk, fork, cup, straw, bib, bowl, bottle, apple, melon, oatmeal, snack, eat
drawer, rock, dirt, hat, pen, phone, book
that, there, yea

48 words so far. And, since both Will and I can sign some words, Alex has actually learned how to sign apple, cheese, all done, wind, cold, more, and hat. Although I have to give credit to Zimry for teaching him more.

I have to say, my favorite word that Alex has learned is "yeah." Oddly, Will didn't learn a positive yes word until much later. With Alex, we can actually ask him if he wants something and he will say "yeah." In fact, when he wants anything, he will sometimes point to it and say, "that, yeah" but most of the time, I find him simply nodding and saying yeah over and over, not quite sure what he wants. It's also funny when he vehemently shakes his head "no."

Alex has also figured out what duckies, frogs, birds, vehicles, dinosaurs and puppies say. The puppy part is mostly due to the fact that Will has developed his first imaginary friends. He has a group of imaginary baby puppies that go places with him. He made me open the car door to let them out after I got him out of the car the other day. We quiz him on how many there are, "a lot" and what their names are, "they don't have names yet." Although today he named one of them Max. Max joined us on a walk to Starbucks. Will is also convinced that he is a puppy, making the rest of us "mommy puppy," "daddy puppy," and "baby puppy."

Here is an example of Alex explaining what dinosaurs say.

Oddly, Will has switched from calling us mama and dad (or mamadad collectively) to mommy and daddy. I think he learned this at school. He is also quite sophisticated in his language usage, effectively expressing his displeasure about many things.

The two kids together have taken up syncronized activities. These include nodding and saying, "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." They also dance, spin, and they stick their tongues out together. Plus, as an added bonus, we have syncronized throw-yourself-on-the-ground-tantrums. Fortunately Alex doesn't quite understand what he is doing and Will does understand that he gets sent to his room if he does this.

Sometimes they are in sync, but sometimes they disagree. For example, when they watch YouTube together, they want to see different videos. I'll see if I can upload the video of them watching YouTube to YouTube. Because that is what comes next. YouTube videos of people watching YouTube.