What's in a name?

Ela is going through one of those wonderful phases where she's learning something new everyday... OK, she's always in one of those phases, but currently it's mostly language related. And since I recently finished a degree that focused in part on language development, it's my favorite part of her development to watch. It's so cool how kids learn! Also, it's cool that I have a blog where I can brag about it. :-)
Kiddo learns new words all the time. She's able to say her favorite foods, "Bro Bro" for broccoli, "Buu buu" for blueberrys and "Naaaaa" for banana. She points out things she sees every day "Dog" and "Dory", "Car" and "Dodo" for bird, though we still have no idea why. Way back months ago, I put a baby sign language app on my iPhone to keep her busy in occasional moments of desparation, and now she also signs lots of those things, which helps distinguish between words like "Ish" for Fish" and "Shh" for Shoes. It's remarkably cute (and I do realize that, as her mother, I would find it cute even if it really wasn't).
Even cuter, are the ways that she "talks" about what she sees. Yesterday we had visits from both a Plumber and an Air Conditioning guy. This caused Dory to bark incesantly for most of the afternoon. When I started to get annoyed, I'd shout "Dory!" By the end of the afternoon, Ela was telling me "Woof Woof" and then saying "Dory!" in the same tone that I'd shout. When we drive Zack to work, she repeats "Da DaDa!" all the way home in the same tone that we say "Bye Bye Dada!" when he left the car. She's starting to try to sing along with songs she hears regularly. When she wants me to sing the ABC's she sings "Ah Ah Ah Ah" like the begining of the song. She also does motions for the "hello" song we sing at story time and some of the Itsy Bitsy Spider song on occasion if she thinks no one will notice.
And did I mention how much she loves books? The child is addicted at least as much as me. She has her favorites, of course, and she's been turning to her favorite pages in her favorite books for awhile now. Now, she also says the titles when she brings me books. My favorites are "Go Go Go" which is her version of "Go Dogs! Go!" and "Ah Ah! Ah ah!" which is "Blue Hat Green Hat" (It's all in the tone, which matches how I read it.) The last time we ready "Mr. Brown Can Moo" she imitated almost all the sounds as we went through it. And her new thing is to read bits to herself. She'll turn to a page and say some of the words that are actually on it. It's so fun!
When we're not reading, we look at family pictures. She likes to look at herself, and I've been taking advantage of this to point out other people she knows, doing the signs of course. And it's starting to pay off now in words. She's trying to say names for everyone now, though she hasn't settled on what she'll call them all. Her Aunt Amanda is "AhAHah." Grandpa is "BaPa" and goes for both of them. Grandma hasn't settled into one thing, but it's getting there. Her Aunt Emily has become "Momomo". Aunt Minjee is "Mimi".
So every day, I'm enjoying listening to my daughter and seeing what will come out of her mouth next. And while conversation with a one year old is still not exactly intellectually stimulating, at least hearing what she's learning is very exciting.