What's the Difference between a Verbal Kid and a Smart Alec?

She's sixteen months old.

Every now and then, she says a word that I recognise. This morning she came to me and said what I was sure was "cuddle" and climbed up into my arms and squeezed me around the neck. She stands at the open front door and shouts, "Alloo!" into the street.

Sometimes I hear say "Mum-ee" or "Dad-ee" or her name, her brother's name or her dog's name. I think she's said words like "jump" in the past.

These days it still doesn't happen very often, but sometimes I think that she is actually saying words instead of babbling strings of unrelated sounds. I think that her language development is probably closer to the average range than Sonny Ma-Jiminy's.

Sonny Ma-Jiminy was quick with his speech and language - I kept a record of the words he produced and when he was the same age (sixteen months) I gave up on the list because I couldn't keep it up-to-date. That, and the fact that he learned the words "bra" and "undies" from watching me get dressed first thing each morning.

When he was eighteen months, we went to Yum Cha for Mr de Elba's birthday lunch. Sonny Ma-Jiminy saw an elderly lady in the line waiting to be served. He leaned over towards her, tried to peer down her shirt and enquired, "baaa?" Not the time or place to assure Sonny that she probably was wearing a bra.

Smoochy doesn't promise to say anything quite like that in public. Not yet.