The episode of Discovery Channel's "The Baby Human" series that explores the development of speech says that the "speech explosion" (or whatever they called it) that takes place at about 18 months is due to the child suddenly realizing that every item has a name.

Since Hunter was about 8 months old when he first started demanding to know what things were called by holding something up and imperiously saying, "Dat!" I don't think that knowing that things have names is a new concept for him.

We've also known for a while that Hunter understands a whole lot of what we say. He also has been saying things that, frankly, are surprising in their lack of importance:

• about a month ago, he picked up a damp washcloth and stated, very clearly and distinctly, "It's wet." It was so out of the blue that I wanted to look for the ventriloquist.
  
  
• At a friend's house, Hunter was taking magnetic letters off the fridge and taking them to our friend (who surreptitiously passed them back to me so I could recycle them back on the fridge.) At the point that Hunter managed to bring the last letters (I was too slow putting them back), he looked at our friend and said, "What now?"
  
  
• He'll say things like "Hello," and "Thank you."

But what I mean about not being important is that he wouldn't tell us what he wanted. He'd sign "more" to get us to play his little musical toys, but not if he wanted more to eat. He'd respond to yes/no questions with either a happy giggle or a blank stare, but he wouldn't try to initiate an exchange.

It was starting to get a little frustrating as his ever-increasingly melodic babble kept getting closer and closer to speech without actually becoming coherent. Most of the time, I could get by with vague, general responses and encouragement, but then came the time he asked me what was obviously a direct question, and I had to tell him, "I'm sorry, sweetie, but I haven't a clue what you're talking about."

And then, about two weeks ago, Hunter apparently decided that he had the walking thing sufficiently under control and it was now time to start trying to actively communicate.

Thank goodness.

After flinging a bit of apple onto the floor, he pointed to it from his high chair and said, "Abagabayahgaya abble famaramgabbahey."

On one of our evening stroller rides, he saw the moon, pointed, and stated emphatically, "Boo!" I was thrilled. Finally, we're getting somewhere.

However musical his babbling, he's still working on enunciation -- but working on it he is. When the video we'd been watching turned off, leaving the television screen blue, he pointed and, again, stated, "Boo!"

(And then there was the time he half-hid behind a chair, the stepped out and said, "Boo!" The kid's starting to understand nuance.)

He started using the "more" sign to actually indicate that he was still hungry and wanted more food. Today, he asked for his toothbrush by pointing and saying, "Brush."

*sigh*

My little baby's growing up.