Hannah is smart!
Hannah has an 18 month appointment coming up this week, and as we looked at the calendar, Jon and I got a bit excited. Hannah’s pediatrician is always really great…nice guy, well spoken, but calm and pretty laid back…he’s a great fit for us first-timers. The first visit I ever made to his office he told me that since it was the middle of winter and because I had a brand new infant, he’d keep the appointment as short as possible so that I could get her out of there and back home away from the cold and other sick kids. He promised that he’d talk more during the summer when it wasn’t as important and when there wasn’t as much of a chance of catching something. He just seems to be aware of everything involved with our kid, and he’s always ready to answer any questions we may have. He’s also always sweet to tell us how cute and how perfect Hannah is, and we always feel better knowing that, as far as her doctor is concerned, Hannah is a bit above the curve, learning things right on time for her age…or maybe a little bit early.
In light of that…knowing our desire to impress our doctor and show him that Hannah is still cute and that she’s progressing perfectly…that she is smart beyond her 18 months…we figured that a good yardstick to measure her intelligence was communication. How many words does Hannah know? We put some criteria to it…It had to be a word that she could say and that we understood when she said it. (She understands the word garbage and will put something in the garbage can when I ask her to, but she has never said the word “garbage”, so it’s not on the list.) It had to be a word that she wasn’t just repeating, but it had to be a word that she could produce without prompting and for which she understood the meaning. (She can say the word ‘groovy’ when we prompt her to, but she has no concept of what groovy is, so it’s not on the list.)
Still, as we plowed through the standards like “mommy”, “daddy”, “apple”, and “ball”, we were surprised to find more impressive words like “bubbles”, “moon”, “pretty”, and she knows most of her body parts. We’re fairly embarrassed that she knows “show”, “stinky poo-poos” and “messy” so well, but we’re also pretty happy that she knows “please”, “thank you”, and “music.” We were very excited the day that we realized she was asking for her pacifier when she said “Bint-bi” and she loves it when she asks for her “Monks” and we put on the dvd of Disney’s Chip and Dale. You should see the pride on her face when she says something that we understand and which enables us to give her what she wants. How amazing to know that you’re finally understood! What an achievement that must be for a toddler!
Every day we find a few more words that we hadn’t realized she knew, and we laugh again at how quickly she is grasping the entire communication process. Our list has grown, and two days before her appointment, I believe we’re just above 90 words solidly in Hannah’s vocabulary…and I just realized that she knows a couple more that will go on the list when I get home. The pediatrician will probably knock us down a couple of pegs and tell us that 100 is average for 18 months, but until then, we’re riding high on the idea that we’ll get to the appointment and our daughter will be light-years beyond normal.
Some of my favorite words Hannah knows: Banana, shoes, car, go, Hi, bum, coo-coo, num, bye bye, Elmo!, chair, dress, birdie, baby, noodles, meat, milk, cheeeeeese, hair, church, Jesus, love you.
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