Communication ahoy!

At 15 months, Annalise understands a lot more than we think. We'd like to think it's because Annalise is brilliant, but perhaps it's standard development for a tot her age. A few months ago (around 12 months of age?)we realized she understood words we'd never taught her, and was also able to respond to commands and questions.

I believe our first revelation came when asking her to get the "tractor", a pint-sized plastic toy we'd only called by name a handful of times. Wouldn't you know it, she got right up, walked over to the John Deere look-a-like and brought it back with some nice diesel vrrr vrrr sounds. Well, it was more like a "aabrrrrrraaaaarrrrrrrrrruhhhh uhh rrrrr". Maybe she was replicating a misfire or something. I digress.

Her baby signs started to increase as well. Before, she was always good at flailing her arms wildly to signal "all done" and the occasional "more", but frankly, my daddy eyes questioned the sloppy signs spawning momma's excitement that our baby is 'signing to us'. Well I was wrong. Now, Annalise has since amassed the following signs and enjoys mimicking us like a mirror. Avast! Here ye Annalise's veritable cornucopia of signing repertoire:

More
Please
Thank You
Hat
Sleepy
Where?
All Done
Food
Milk
Cheese
Drink
Banana

Pretty neat huh? Yeah, I was a skeptic about the baby signs, but it really is neat. Her spoken vocabulary is more limited:

Ma ma = Mom
Da da = Dad <----I personally believe this was her first intentional word
Buh-Bye = Buh bye<----She says this the most.
Chee = Cheese
Wheh = where
Dis = This
Ba = Balloon,
Ba = Bottle
Ba = Banana
Ba = Bath
Ba = Antiestablishmentarianism (just kidding)

This doesn't include words or commands she understands, which boggles my mind as to how she learned them. Again, I cite brilliance (mom's side). Often I'll experiment and ask her to go get an object and, more often that not, she knows what I'm talking about. Some examples:

Annalise, where's your big blue fish (stuffed animal)?
Annalise, go get your towel for your bath.
Lets get some pajamas
Sit down, please
Stand up, please
Lets go outside
Time to put your shoes and socks on.
Drink your water

She packs suitcases well, too.