First words

I have added a page that will keep track of Sasha's words. As of now, his vocabulary is only in Russian. Once he starts using English words, I will add a page to track his English vocabulary.

I am tracking words that Sasha has used in context and the use was not prompted by adult's repetition. Here are some examples:


1. I had been encouraging Sasha to use the word папа (daddy) for several weeks to no avail, until one morning he saw his dad walking from the bathroom into the living room, looked at me and said: "Папа!" He said some other stuff, too, but I am not sure what was the rest of his tirade.
2. Sasha was sitting on the potty trying to poop. He made some sounds and eventually motioned with his hands that he was finished and wanted to be picked up, when I picked him up he turned around looked at the potty and said: "Кака?" (poop) using question intonation. Well, there was no poop, which made him really sad.
3. Another potty story. I have put Sasha on the potty, and was standing across the room from him folding a blanket. For a couple of seconds, he had an expression on his face like he was doing something and then said: "Всё!" (the word means all, but can be used for All done!, and I use it that way with Sasha) and reached his arms up motioning that he wants to be picked up. The potty showed the evidence that he indeed was all done.

And here is my prediction: Sasha's first words in English will be completely different. I am thinking that it does not just depend on daily routines which words a baby will use first, but also on the language. In English, first words are usually mama, dada, hi, bye. And in Russian, typical first words are мама (mommy, pronounced mama), папа (daddy, pronounced papa), баба (grandma, pronounced baba), дай (give it to me, pronounced dye). A Russian child typically does not start saying hi or bye until much later, partly because of the culture (in Russia, generally, people don't greet strangers, and strangers don't greet babies as vigorously as people do here) and partly because Russian words for hi and bye are more difficult to pronounce (привет - privet, пока - paka). And in English, grandma is too complicated for a small kid to pronounce. That's why some grandparents prefer being called tutu or nana (they don't want to wait until their grandchild learns to pronounce sequences that include several different consonants).

The tracking page appears right under the title of this blog.