Communicating in Complete Points

It appears that The Nugget1 is going to be a man of few words. He is almost 17 months old and has very few words yet. He understands a lot of what we say, but he isn't communicating with us verbally very much yet. He can say "hello" and "bye-bye". He can say "uh-oh" and "up". When he wants to nurse, he usually pokes me in the chest and says "ya-ya". He says mama very clearly but does not use it appropriately. We think he is beginning to say The Politican10's name. He also thinks that "ruff ruff" is a word and shouts it with glee when he sees our dogs. More recently however, we have learned that "ruff-ruff" is also applied to all furry four legged animals, such as the deer was that crossing the road the other day. When he saw it, he pointed and shouted "ruff-ruff". He has also done this for horses and cats.

I can't say as I blame him for not talking more though. He really hasn't had much need yet. He has so many siblings at the ready and when a point and a grunt accomplishes the communication task so well, why bother with words? And he is growing more sophisticated each day with his ability to communicate via sign language. He now communicates in complete points. Case in point: the other day he came into the kitchen, arms raised in the air to be picked up. As soon as I had him in my arms, he pointed at himself, then at me, then toward a box of crackers, then to a bowl on the counter, and finally back at himself. With a series of properly sequenced points, he managed to communicate that he wanted me to put those crackers in this bowl and then give them to him. And of course I did it before I even realized he had not uttered a word.