animal sounds

Much of Annike's communication is done by making animal sounds. Her first word was "meow" for a kitty, but that soon turned into sniffing like a bunny, whinnying like a horse, and she has a mean bear growl that doubles as the sound monsters on Sesame Street make.



Sometimes it is hard to know how much language she actually understands because she does not have grasp of that many intelligible words. So it surprised me when I gave her some chicken meat to eat in her high chair, and she said "Buck, buck, buck", which is, of course, what a chicken says. The fact that she was eating a favorite farm animal didn't seem to bother her.

I guess I should not have been so shocked when I gave her hot dog, and she came out with "Woof Woof!" (it sounds more like "foow foow" coming out of her mouth). Children are so accepting of the truth.

Annike manages to do quite a bit of communication using her sounds instead of words. Her latest addition to the noises is Santa's Ho Ho Ho. On her own, she decided that when Daddy has shaving cream all over his face in the morning, he looks like Santa. She can see him in the bathroom mirror when she is eating breakfast in her high chair, and lets us know what she thinks by saying "Oh Oh Oh!"