He wants very much to hold a conversation and interact though, so he will repeat things and make a lot of silly faces to hold our attention. Today was his first two word phrase (other than "what's that?" and "bye-bye, go"). He was drinking his bottle and trying to walk around at the same time and repeatedly dropped his bottle. He looked at Chris and I and told us, "bottle down," before picking it up and consuming more.
Earlier this week I was eating breakfast with Sam and had had an entire conversation that consisted of, "more, berries, O's, mama, er (water), and hot." When Chris came in to take over, I ran down what Sam had eaten and told him, "we're having a great time, but conversation is really lacking."
I read something the other day that said you can try to teach a toddler a new word, can say it up to 50 times and unless they are really interested they won't repeat it. Yet you can say something once or twice, and if it's relevant and important or interesting to them, they will attempt to say it and retain it. Which would explain why he can say things like "bubble" and "cheese" but not "diaper" or "crib."
So are we supposed to just talk at him? Sometimes I ask Sam about his day and he looks blankly back at me and then finds something to play with. He understands what is coming up and can follow simple directions, but a whole day of one word exchanges can get repetitive. I sometimes feel like I am working with my ESL kids, simplifying my speech and wondering how much is actually being comprehended. It will all come in due time and we're past the phase where everything, including cars and people are "kitty-cat."
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