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Tralee's been saying a few more words lately. She's a late talker, so we're always impressed and proud when a new sound or word is achieved. Here are the words Tralee uses:

1. "Puh!" Translation: Jump

2. "Weee!!!" Usually done when she's swinging or being thrown in the air by her daddy.

3. "Yay!!" Usually said while clapping her hands in excitement. She says "Yay" after we sing one of her favorite songs, she does something she's proud of (like building a HUMUNGO tower of blocks), or when she sees something she likes (Daddy walking through the door after a long day of work).

4. "Peh-Ey" translation: Pretty

5. "Dah-Ey" translation: Doggy or Daddy

6. "Bye Bye" A universal word said for both "hello" and "goodbye" kind of like "Aloha"

7. Mom or Mama

8. "Seey" translation: Silly

9. "Da-dee-dee" Translation: Amen. She says "Da-dee-dee" after every prayer when we say "amen." We just roll with it.

10. "Toot! Toot! Toot!" Usually said after someone farts -- it's funny, cause it's always "the dog" that farts around here.

11. "Up" Usually said when she's been tugging on my leg trying to get me to pick her up.

12. "Pa Pa Pa" Translation: Pat or Clap

13. "BAA" Translation: Ball

14. "Go! Go! Go!"

15. "Buhba" Translation: Bubble

16. "Sheesh" Translation: Shoes

That's about it for her words. Tralee does some mean animal sounds. She's learned elephant, kitty, snake, and doggy. However, her doggy isn't your typical "woof!" Instead, Tralee prefers to pant like a dog after we ask her "What does doggy say?" She must see our chubby pug huffing and puffing all the time.

Tralee has been working on letters and numbers as well. She can correctly identify lots of letters when we ask her to. She's especially good and "A" and "B." She also loves to "count." She doesn't say the numbers, but she does a really good job mimicking how I help her count. It's adorable! Here's a video of her "counting" her puzzle pieces, at the end she does the elephant sound, but turns her back to the camera. You get the gist of it though.



I read somewhere that at Tralee's age, kids should be able to jump, walk up and down stairs, and may possibly be able to stack at least two blocks on top of each other. I laughed at this, because Tralee's been jumping (I'm talking, REAL both-feet-off-the-ground LEAPING) since she was 13 months. She's also been walking (by herself) up and down stairs (not even holding onto the railing at times) since she was around 13 or 14 months as well. As far as the block building goes, Tralee makes towers taller than she is out of blocks. The other day Jim called to me from Tralee's room, "Leslie, get the camera right now!!!!" By the time I found it, and raced up the stairs I heard the crumbling of a tower. I missed it, but Jim said it was the BIGGEST tower he's ever seen! Tralee was standing on her tip-toes to get the next block on top. I'm sorry I missed it! Tralee's a GREAT block builder, in fact, anything that can be stacked, she will!

We were at a restaurant the other night and Tralee made a beautiful tower out of the ketchup bottle, the steak sauce, and the pepper shaker on top. It was quite impressive as these are not easy things to stack! The waitress didn't believe that Tralee did that on her own, but we assured her we had nothing to do with it -- except make sure Tralee didn't knock it down and send steak sauce flying everywhere.

Tralee has always been ahead of the game physically, crawling, walking, and climbing, way before the rest of her age group. This is one of the reasons I think the verbalizing is coming a little slower. She's been so focused on all the physical aspects, that talking was put on the back burner. We're seeing some real improvements with Tralee's talking as of late, and we couldn't be prouder!

It sure is fun watching her learn and grow everyday!