20 Words at 20 Months

Somewhere along the way, I remember hearing about this language milestone as a good indication that a toddler was on track. Twenty words doesn't seem like much, but when you hear constant babble all day, every day, you begin to realize how precious a single intelligible word can be. Elisa will repeat things from time to time without really getting its meaning and we all know she loves to list people and go through photo albums pointing away. But slowly, surely she has started using more words and I'm thinking that we're up to about 20, so let's see how many I can remember:

1. bubble
2. eye
3. mouth
4. car
5. bear
6. shoe
7. sock
8. bye
9. hi
10. agua
11. ball
12. bottle
13. baby
14. hair
15. teeth
16. up
17. on
18. thank you
19. hot
20. cheese
21. goal (or more accurately with a Spanish accent--GOOOOOOOOOOOL!!)
22. no--how could I forget the first word she really learned???

Okay, so I think I might have a few missing but I cannot for the life of me remember them. Now that's not to say that these are the only words Elisa has ever spoken, but these are the ones she seems to actually know. And the cool thing about watching her language skills develop is how well she understands me when I ask her to do something or when Nacho speaks to her in Spanish and she follows commands. She can point to all the (main) parts of her face and body in both English and Spanish. She loves to repeat those words over and over again, especially when she is tired. She loves naming her stuffed toys from Yo Gabba Gabba and if one is missing from the room, you can ask her to go find it. I think she seems on target for what most kids at this point are doing linguistically, but she has definitely not come close to using two words together which some of the books say is normal for this age. I realize that all things happen in time, but for me, hearing her talk and getting more meaning out of her babble is so exciting. I was thinking the other day that 2 years is a long time to wait to be able to talk to someone and yet, we give babies that much and more before they make sense. But really, could you be in a relationship with someone you couldn't talk to? I guess that's why babies are so damn cute.