Look Who's Talking

Alayna is 16 months old now and is starting to talk quite a bit. It's so adorable, and is truly music to a speech pathologist's ears! I thought I should start to keep track of all of her words. So, here is what she is saying so far. BTW, her favorite words which she says ALL the time are "star", which she says beautifully, "woof" for dog, "uh oh" and "yeah," which she says enthusiastically in response to questions like "Do you want a banana?" or "Are you ready to go?" As you can see, she prefers sounds of things to their actual names, but those still count as words because she uses them consistently to communicate meaning.

Dat (That)

WaDat? (What's that?)

Dis (This)

WaDis? (What's this?)

SeeDat (I wanna see that)

Mama

Dada

Woof (Dog)

Star

Yeah

No

Uh oh

Woah/Wow

Yum

Yay! - & she usually claps when saying this

A (She identifies the letter, A for Alayna)

Sssss (Snake)

Some (I want some of that food)

Du Du Du (Duck or Quack)

Da (Ball or Balloon)

Baa baa (Sheep)

EeeAww (Donkey)

Vroom (Car)

Ch Ch (Train)

Zzzz (Bee/bug or Zipper)

Budu budu budu (Horse galloping)

Vvvv - & puts arm up for the elephant's trunk(Elephant)

Mmmm (Cow)

Mmmeee – high pitched (Cat)

Ho ho ho (Santa)

H h h (Heart)

Atch (Watch)

Ees (Cheese & Peas)

A'ul (Apple)

Ox (Box)

Dow dow dow (Down down down - usually means "I want to go downstairs")

Ar Ar Ar (Seal)

Oo oo aa aa (Monkey)

(Sniffs for pig)

(Opens & closes mouth like a fish for fish)

Afraid of the water

All of a sudden, Alayna has become really afraid of water. She cries the whole time I try to give her baths. I tried getting her some fun new bath toys and even have tried getting in the bathtub and playing with her, but nothing seems to help. I thought if we took her to the swimming pool and showed her that water is fun she would like it, but she just screamed and shook and clung onto me in the pool. I have no idea what triggered this fear, but I read online that it's fairly common for toddlers her age. So, does anyone have any suggestions? Should I keep taking her to the pool hoping that she'll start to like it, or will forcing her to get in the water when she's petrified just make things worse? There are toddler swimming lessons starting in two weeks that I was thinking about signing her up for. Or should I wait on the swimming and just give her sponge baths until she grows out of the fear?