Update for Thursday visitors: I don’t know what happened, but the text of my Collecting Favorites post disappeared yesterday, with all the links to your favorite posts. I’m spending tonight trying to recreate it from the comments (they are still there) and your e-mails. Please check back in the next day or two and make sure your links are still there and that they are in working order. If they aren’t there by Friday, let me know.

And in the meantime, please pay a visit to Stephanie, who wrote this amazing post for her daughter’s first birthday.

I’ll have a new post up late tonight.

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We spent our Memorial Day afternoon enjoying the company of friends at an impromptu picnic in a nearby park. There were eight kids under five in our group. I know it sounds crazy, but the atmosphere was very laid back. We were just all happy to be out of our houses.

At one point Rachel and I were standing near a one and a half year old boy (Hannah’s buddy), who was babbling away. I believe he said, “Shoeba, Shoeba, Shoeba, dooba…..” or something in that vein.

Rachel heard, “Are ya sad?”

“Mom, he’s really talking now? He said ‘Are ya sad?’”

“Oh, yea?” I responded.

“So he’s almost two, right?” Rachel deducted, “He talks better than Hannah.”

In fact, he is one month younger than our nineteenth-month old Hannah.

But this brings us to the subject of the day, Hannah’s speech development. The girl is talking. Really she is. She’s just a little, let’s say, different. She’s got her own thing going in the words department.

For instance, let’s take the word “wa.” It might not sound a lot like cup, but it’s close enough to water, which is a liqud that goes in a cup, right?

We’ve got a clear “No” for no. Of course, that also means nose. When she means nose, however, she’ll point to her nose. She used to stick her finger up it whenever we said nose, but she’s way too advanced for that now.

Also audible are : shoe, bye-bye, dada, mama, dog, mine, down, diaper, poo-poo, bath, chair.

Everything else falls in this grey area, somewhere between da-da and shee.

Juice, cheese, vitamins, and who knows what are either sheee, or shoewa.

Rachel is didi, and sometimes Ridi.

And yesterday, she settled upon a word for her blanket. She moved from didi, to the more sophisticated, “danky.” Hey, we’ll take it. We’re talking two-syllables with two different consonants. Genius child.

There are a lot more words that I can’t remember and I’m sure I’ll be editing this post all day tomorrow to add them so I don’t sell miss Hannah Banana short. (Or maybe I’ll be sane and just give it a rest.)

The point is folks, she’s really talking. She might not be asking me if I’m sad, but she’s making progress. She’s trying so hard to form the words. It’s quite touching to watch. I’m also proud of her skill at making ‘didi’ sound liking a hundred different words by putting the right emphasis and drama on each syllable. The girl has rhythm I tell you. The soul of a musician. She understand the essence of the word’s sound. There’s an artist for you. And now she’s starting to combine words right and left. Most of the time these word combinations involve the word mine, but that’s okay. She’s also been saying “Mama shee,” which perhaps means “Mama,see” (look). I don’t know. We’re working it out.

So if you ask me how many words she has, I’ll say at least 102. They may all sound like didi to you, but I’m sticking by my number.