Milestone: Vocabulary Explosion!

Soren's linguistic development has really taken off all of a sudden, to the endless delight of his parents. His vocabulary is blossoming at a rate of one or two words a day when he used to only learn one or two a month. Everyone tells me is normal (not extraordinary) but it is still very exciting to watch happen.

He uses words to communicate now, not just as coincidental by-products of a situation or emotion. He loves to identify things: animals, household objects, and even the letters of his name.

Yesterday he used my very favorite word: "mom". Up to this point, he has never referred to Scott or I as "mom" or "dad", although he has enjoyed identifying his "dad" in pictures. But yesterday, while he was playing with his Aunt Breezy, he started squirming to get away, then pointed at me and said "mom". I don't want to get all sappy on everybody, though, so I won't tell you how that made me feel. I'll just say that although that word has been a l-o-n-g time coming, it still feels good to hear it.

It's been entertaining to watch Soren develop physically (from rolling over to scooting and pulling up, crawling to walking) but his mental development is much much more exciting.

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