waiting for words

I am stealing this blog title from my sister. She write this as her son Noah turns six months and begins his "ohs" and "ahs." I write this as the mom of the 17 month old boy who still just utters nothingness. Well, not complete nothingness, but I am beginning to get a tad anxious and a bit concerned that he may need speech therapy.

Here are his utterances:
"da da" = daddy, obviously, but also indicates anything that reminds him of daddy; like today I whispered the word "snack" into his ear because if I say it out loud Marty will start to bark, and when I whispered he giggled and said "da da." I realized that he did this because his da da whispers nursery rhymes into his ear.
"ma ma" and sometimes a "mom" = yours truly
"daw" = dog; sometimes he will utter a delayed "ggg" sound too
"kk" = car and/or truck
"na na" = no

But he understands soooo much. One of his favorite books right now is this "Organic Baby First Words" book which just has pictures of objects and words. He knows banana, apple, duck, plane, keys, ball...and many more. He knows his body parts. He can follow/respond to most commands, like "go get your boots" or "put your fireman in the driver seat of the fire truck." He has babbling conversations too. He seems to say "all done" a lot, like when done eating or done with a diaper change. And he also seems to say "yeah" or "nah" when I ask him questions. On a daily basis I am not frustrated at all by his communication skills. But I so look forward to being able to have a conversation, even if it is broken down into simple phrases like "me want" and "go outside" and "green tree." And so I still feel a tad concerned that he is not forming more intelligible words. We will see what the doctor says next month.