Miss Talksalot

So, I know I've mentioned in the past couple of posts how quickly Audia's vocabulary seems to be expanding. I figured it was time I actually delve into some of the specifics of her language development, just as a point of reference for her and I for later. Mainly because it feels like her vocabulary is growing exponentially, and I am sure in a months time I will simply be used to these new things she's discovering now, and on to being amazed about something else.

So, last week she said Octopus. She knows a ton of animal names at this point, though she still calls dogs "Arf"s and Cows "Moo"s.
She's finally seemed to master the concept of color (for a while, when you asked her what color anything was, she would always answer with "Bll" (for "blue"). She still defaults to Blue if she doesn't know what color something is, but she now knows Blue, Green, Red, White, Purple, and Pink. When asked which color she likes best, she answers "blue" every time. :-)
She also is mastering numbers! She won't count on her own (well, she will, but she says "one, one, one, one") but if you start counting, she knows which number to say after the number you've said up to four! And she recognizes visually numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6!
She's been saying "please" ("peehs") for a while, but just a few days ago started saying it on her own, without someone saying "what's the magic word?". She also said "Thank You" ("Tuck-ah") on her own twice yesterday!
But the biggest improvement/surprise recently is her understanding of opposites. She has a mini board book, which is only 5 pages, that depicts Grover from Sesame Street and shows different opposites, which we've been reading to her on and off for a few weeks. Well, just yesterday she pointed at the ground, shook her head, and said "down!" and then immediately put her arms up and said "Up!" with a big smile on her face. Then, today we were in the laundry room and her jacket was hanging on the line (I washed it yesterday). She wanted it and said "Jacka!" Chris said "no, honey, it's not dry." And she said "wet!" SHE IS A GENIUS!!! Lol. It just blows my mind! Now, I can't find any "official" studies on when kids start understanding opposites, but based on vocabulary milestone lists I've found on various websites, they all state that kids should start understanding opposites at around 5 years!!!
There is no doubt in my mind that all of this crazy development is why she's been having some troubles sleeping through the night. It's certainly improved from my last entry about the 18 month regression, but we still have a way to go. At least she's not waking up every half hour to hour all night long anymore, though!