Speech at 16 months

Animal sounds and actions they know:

Owl - hoo hoo

Gorilla - thump chest

Sheep - baah and meh (sheep are bilingual in our household - LOL!)

Cow - mooh

Wolf - ahoooo! ahoooo!

Pig - snorts (can't say "oink" yet.) They crinkle their noses and snort - it's hysterical.

Monkey - uhuhuh, makes ASL sign for monkey

Chicken - puhk puhk puhk/flaps arms like chicken wings

Giraffe - nods yes with "long" neck

Penguin - shakes head "no" (thank you, Eric Carle book)

Buffalo - raises shoulders

Crocodile - wriggles hips, they try to say "crocodile" and it sounds
like "kohkohdai" hilarious

Dog - woof

Fish - opens and closes mouth (no sound)

Snake - ssss (they saw real snakes at a zoo recently)

Turtle - Puts finger in front of mouth for quiet and in one of their
books, the turtle is quiet

Seal - claps hands without bending arms at elbow

Elephant - stomps

Donkey - hee haw, kicks

Horse - neigh

I was busy asking Julia some of the above. I stopped before I had asked them all, and she suddently started saying and showing me the ones I had omitted! I forgot the wolf, and she said, "ahoo" and pointed to the moon, and then thumped her chest to tell me I also forgot to ask about the gorilla. Man, they're already checking up on me. This amazed me, because it was the fist time that Julia indicated to me that she was memorizing what I have and haven't asked.

This morning, Julia walked around with a little wolf soft toy, and kept saying, "ahoo, ahoo, ahoo" with pouty lips and looking up at the moon, and in an unnaturally high-pitched voice. Her wolf howls are beyond freaking adorable.

There are also other funny things they do:

If I say "Stop!" Julia and Emma will put their hands up showing "stop."

They can say, "Go" thanks to the "Go, Dogs, Go" book. It's a favorite. They also wave down imaginary traffic when we get to the green traffic light in the book, "Go, dogs, go, it's green ahead."

When we say, "Hallo, Possums!" they wave like the British comedic character, Dame Edna. We have their dad to thank for this one. Oi!!

We call "Cheerios" "O's" - and they can all sign "o" using one hand. I've been doing this for ages, but they only recently started signing this one back to us. Now they sign and say, "Ohs" simultaneously.

When we say, "Oh my goodness!" they all grab hold of their heads.

They recognize the following words and can point to these body parts, but are not attempting to say the words yet. "Nose" is about the only one they can say.

Head
Shoulders
Nose
Bellybutton
Feet
Toes
Tummy (they respond to this correctly when asked in both Afrikaans and English.)

Words they say clearly and often:
Hi
Bye
Tatta
Mamma
Pappa
Daddy
Teddy
Beer (Bear)
Doedoe (to sleep)
Baba
Ouma (grandma)
Oupa (grandpa)
Ne
Blou (blue)
Geel (yellow)
Sneeu (snow - sounds like "deeu" when they say it)
Skoen (shoe - sounds like "doen" when they pronounce it)
Op
Da (Radar, our dog)
Row
Ball and bal
Doek/doekie (Julia only)
Uh-oh
Ai (like oy vey)
Done/Klaar. In Afrikaans, it sounds like "kaa"

Ada also says "num" for yummy food (and will say "num" when she picks up the Yummy/Yucky book)
Daarsy (there you go)
Da
Mamma? (always a question, as in: "Where are you?" lol)
Pappa? (always a question)
Dadda

Ada makes sounds when she reads books, like she's reading to all of us. She's starting to make sounds like she's telling us a long story, with cadence and rhythm. It's beyond cute when she pretends to "speak" in sentences, and looks at us, like "Are you getting all that?"

Yesterday, Ada was watching her dad throw tennis balls for the dog. She made her first almost-sentence that I could comprehend, "Dadda ball woof!"
It was just incredible hearing her put those three concepts together logically.

Emma can find and point to the "ball" in the "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Touch the Ground" book. Anything round, is a "ball" in her world. She walks around all day long, alternating between "ball" and "woof" with "mamma" sprinkled in every now and then for dramatic effect. Julia and Emma aren't able to point to anything in particular yet when I ask them to.

Emma kisses pictures of all animate objects in books. She leans in and smacks her lips if it's an animal, human or something resembling one of those two categories, e.g. a picture of a doll. If you have eyes, you're going to be kissed! She isn't very discriminate, but doesn't kiss inanimate objects like photos of balls or pictures of cars.

Julia and Ada have started copying Emma, so now we have to stop mid-read to kiss all the animals. It's way too cute to handle.