Studies suggest that at sixteen months of age, babies pick up about ten new words a day. That sounds about right. Here in our house, our toddler suddenly started adding new words to her vocabulary every day at about that pace. Actually, she is adding new words to all of our vocabulary. Whatever she names something for the first time, that's what we all call it from then on, because it is too cute to call it anything else. So balloons are now baboons, apple juice is appadut, and cheerios are chooftiot.Many years ago, as a young and idealistic mother, I was determined to model proper language for my children. I thought that if a baby hears proper language usage, he will be mature verbally at a younger age, and I believed that if you talk baby talk to babies, that is how they will always talk. My older kids, now teens, definitely have excellent verbal skills and vocabulary, so at least I was right on the first thing. But I sure hope I am right on the second thing. I hope balloons will always be baboons, and shoes will always be shoots, and that da moon will always be absolutely fascinating, and a baba filled with appadut is always nummy. Because I can still remember another baby, 13 years ago, calling a baba filled with appadut "babajoo," and I cannot imagine why I ever taught him to say apple juice. Lesson learned.
