Blog posts? It's time for "nuh-one"

So, Kelsey's talking quite a bit now. She can say a ton of things: boat, movie, 'nanas, I love you, treat, poopoo, shoes, slide, drink, juice, bing (the sound the toaster makes), toast, running, me, you, yep, yes, no, no-no, choo-choo, Mommy, Daddy, blue, Nemo, cat, kitty, Mama's sleeping, and pretty much anything we ask her to say.

As a linguist, I'm fascinated by some of the things she says.
Backpack: It's hard to say the velar stop consonant /k/, and much harder to say it directly before moving to the bilabial stop /p/. Even though she can say "cat" and "kitty", she hasn't figured out how to produce the /k/ when it comes at the end of a syllable. She omits the first /k/, and turns the second /k/ into the closest voiceless stop consonant she can say at the end of a word: /t/. Kelsey loves her "bapat".

Kelsey likes to point at things and tell us what they are. For example, on the ferry ride, she points out the window at a passing freighter and says, "Boat!" If another boat passes, however, she'll say, "nuh-one!" If she wants another piece of chicken, she'll point to ours and say "nuh-one!" Every additional cat she sees after the first is a "nuh-one!" Her love of pointing out "another one" of everything she sees has subtly influenced some other words she says.

She hasn't yet figured out how to say /r/ or /l/, which is normal for her age. When 2+ syllable words end in either /r/ or /l/, she'll often pronounce it as an /n/. Pillow becomes /piwwone/ ('one' pronounced like the number), shower becomes /showone/, towel becomes /towone/. It's very cute.

Before Kelsey started talking a lot, she would follow Stef around with her arms up, wanting to be held. Stef would ask Kelsey, "Do you want me to hold you?" And Kelsey would say "Yep!" When Stef was cooking, Kelsey would beg for attention, putting her arms up and whining to be held. Stef, preparing the food, would say, "I can't hold you right now."

Kelsey heard "holdyou" as one word. Up until recently, when she wanted to be held, she'd walk up to Stef and say, "Holdyou! Holdyou!" While very cute, Stef and I wanted to make sure that she understood that she should say say "hold me!" instead. So, after a week or two of drilling it into her, she now says, "Holdyou..........me! Holdyou..........me!" She's very entertaining.

Kelsey now says "'scuse you!" when someone passes gas, including herself. It's very cute. I'm sure that, before long, after passing gas she'll say "'scuse you.........me!"