15-month doctor's visit

I took Nicholas to the pediatrician for his 15-month checkup yesterday (yes, a little late), so here are his official stats:
Length: 32 inches
Weight: 24 pounds

I have my doubts about the accuracy of the length measurement since he was squirming a ton and she sort of estimated (and because according to that he shrunk 1/4 inch since his sick visit 3 weeks ago even though we know he has grown since then). But close enough.

The doctor's set of questions were actually sort of interesting this time because we've stopped reading the month-by-month books and so have no idea where he is "supposed" to be at this point. And so as the doctor was going through his list of questions it was enlightening to see how Nicholas stacks up. Rest assured, the doctor is very happy with Nicholas.

The question that was most interesting to me was about language. The doctor wanted to know how many words Nicholas has. I stared at him blankly. I honestly have no idea. It turns out that what he really wanted to know was whether it was close to 10. Apparently 10 words is the 15-month benchmark. That made the question easy because I bet he exceeds that most mornings before he leaves for school at 7:30.

Anyway, for my own curiosity and because this blog has become our record of all things Nicholas (hmm, speaking of which, I need to back this thing up), I'm going to try to compile a list here of his words.

• Words he uses regularly (or at least as regularly as they enter his life) and says relatively clearly: cracker, (gotta) go, mommy, dada, uppy, more, bowl, bye-bye, night-night, ball, animal, Elmo, Big Bird, Ernie, book, pool, bus, yummy
• Words he uses regularly, but they mean something related: hello (phone), apple (grape or other round fruit), meow (cat), choo-choo (train), agua (water), moo (cow)
• Words he uses regularly, but with garbled (although consistent) pronunciations: high chair, dog, stroller, banana, block, fish, bath, school, home, truck
• Words he uses every one in awhile, but are not reliable: elephant, duck, thank you, grandpa, swing

There are probably some others I'm forgetting, but that is close. He also shakes his head no, signs "please," and blows whenever anything is hot (including if it is hot in the car when we get in, as though he is going to cool it off). All in all, he can communicate quite well . . . as long as it is about food, animals, transportation, or Sesame Street.