I realized a couple of days ago that V now seems to realize that bread refers to a particular kind of food, not all food. She calls bread by name, that is, and she also has a couple of other food names at this point. Still, in a tight spot, meaning when she is hungry, she says in a really emphatic way, "Breeeeeead." That's her way of saying she is hungry. These kids are genius! They use the few words they know to communicate.
Speaking of which, she actually does use her few words almost constantly and with great delight. When we sit at the table, for example, or when we look at books, V supplies a constant narration of the things she sees--or, more accurately, the things she sees that she has a name for: lamppa, bread, banana, nose, etc.
I have to come clean now and admit that I am probably overselling her verbal skills (what--no way!!!). I can understand what she says because I am around her almost constantly. Her bread and her woof come out quite clearly, as well as mamma. At this point, however, she does not have a full command of consonants and definitely not her vowels. Actually, I think she has most of her consonants, save for the n, the liquids, and the labiodental fricatives (f, v). Her version of banana comes out as "bapa." In other words, the initial bilabial stop gets repeated. When she tries to say her sister's name, which starts with an n, it comes out with a d sound, so it sounds like she is saying "dada." In this case she has the place of articulation right, but not the manner of articulation. It's interesting to me that she has the m sound already but not the n.
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