Rachel, Owen and Kathryn

Babies are good at classifying things, so I've read, and can identify and relate different instances of things in the same class (picture of polar bear, cuddly toy polar bear, stuffed polar bear in Manchester Museum, etc.). Katy has evidently clocked the time-piece class of objects very well. The chiming clock in our dining room is a "bah" (=bong), but so is the ordinary clock in the front room, as is the clock-radio in our bedroom and the small digital alarm clock in her room. The other morning as we were driving to nursery she suddenly exclaimed "Bah!" in an excited manner, and as I looked round for an explanation I spotted a huge clock on the wall of a hospital. Her vocabulary is expanding, although it does seem to be concentrated around variants of Bah! Here's the current list of 'words' at (nearly) 14 months: baa baa = sheep bah = bong, clock bu bu = butterfly bubba = baby bye bye cat cheese daddy du = duck [f]ish Katy ma = more mmm = cow mummy ...

Katy's just had her MMR jab + one other booster and suffered no side-effects so far - just waiting for the possible delayed effects at 6 days and 6 weeks! She's stayed cheeful despite being jabbed in the legs, having a cold, and growing her first molar . My translation skills at her communication attempts have improved, and I've now worked out that when she says "da" (usually accompanied by a pointing finger) it means "look at that interesting thing there", whereas when she says "ma" (plus outstretched fingers) it means she wants "more" of something.

According to the nursery staff Katy can say her own name, but she never says it in our hearing. She can also say "ish" (for fish) "door" (for dog), as well as "daddy" (now taken over from dada) and "mummy" - but in a manc accent, oh howl!