205 Words

Ruby’s vocabulary has exploded in the past month. When it comes up, I’ve been saying to people, “she must know a hundred words already.” Today I decided to count and see how accurate that was, hoping that one hundred was not an exaggeration.

Imagine my surprise when I came up with 205 words! These are all words that Ruby not just understands, but says. They’re all words that I’m confident she knows and have heard her say at least a few times. (I left off some of her most recent words in case she doesn’t really know them yet.)

I poked around online and found that the toddler “vocabulary explosion” or “linguistic leap” is a known milestone, and after it begins, children learn about 10 words a day until adulthood.

The list of words is an interesting window into Ruby’s world. Here they are:

Alice, Asher, Bebe, Diane, Dudley, Grandpapa, Gung Gung, Mama, Mindy, Mom-Mom, Mr. Monster, Nan, Nana, Papa, Pop, Rachel, Ruby, Teddy, Uncle Michael, Zach, again, air conditioner, airplane, apple, awesome, baby, baby burrito, back, ball, balloon, banana, bath, beach, bed, beep, bellybutton, bib, bicycle, block, blueberry, boat, bonk, book, bounce, bread, bucket, buckle, bug, bunny, bus, car, carrier, CD, chair, cheese, clean, clip, clock, close, cold, comb, come, computer, cookie, cow, cracker, crayon, cream, cup, diaper, dig, dip, dirty, dishwasher, doctor, dog, down, drink, duck, dump, ear, elbow, eye, fish, foot, fork, gargoyle, gate, gecko, girls, glove, go, goat, grass, green, ground, hand, hang, hat, head, hello/hi, home, horse, hot, hug, inside, jacket, jammies, juice, jump, keys, kick, kitten, knee, knife, knock, light, mango, mash, milk, mine, moon, moose, music, nap, no, noodle, nori, nose, open, outside, pants, paper, pee, peekaboo, people, piano, pick, piece, pit, plate, please, plum, poo/poop, pool, potty, right here, rock, sand, sandal, scoop, seagull, see, shake, shoe, sit, sleep, slide, snack, snap, soccer, sock, soother, splash, sponge, spoon, star, step, stinko, stomp, strawberry, stuck, sun, sunglasses, swimsuit, swing, taxi, tea, thank you, this, tickle, toast, toes, touch, towel, trash, tray, tree, truck, tunnel, umbrella, up, walk, wallet, wash, water, whale, whee, wheel, whisk, wiggle, wipe, yellow, you’re welcome, zipper/zip