How Caleb converses at 18 months

It is amazing to watch a toddler learn, and for Caleb, as soon as he hit 18 months it was like someone turned on the communication light switch and he began trying to repeat all of the words he has been taking in along the way.  People ask us if he is talking yet, and what words he knows how to say, and I start to tell them that he is talking a lot.  But I have found that when I go to answer that question in more detail, I realize that, although there are a fair number of individual words, its more that he communicates a lot, but through a combination of words, sounds and signs.

One of my favorite things he is doing right now is just spouting out all the words he can think of related to something.  Ex:  "Papa, Nonna, Gia (he has combined dogs' names, Gio and Bella... kind of like the ridiculous Bennifer, Brangelina, and whatever other celebrity nicknames the media has come up with), *kissing sound* (Gio and Bella always give him kisses), poop (this is what he calls a shovel, because he sees it being used for that), duck (there are ducks in my parents' neighbor's back yard that he always wants to look at over the fence), no no (Papa and Nonna are always telling Gio and Bella no no because they lick and bark so much), ball (dogs like to play ball with him), *throwing motion*.  Its like he is able to have a whole conversation without forming a single sentence.  And he 'talks' about these things all the time, going through the whole series of words related to a given topic every time.  Another example:  Gigi (Regina), boo-bar (blueberry - she often brings them for Caleb, which he loves!), back (blackberry - she brought him blackberries instead, just once), duck (Nana Gigi sometimes takes Caleb to the Lake to see the ducks).

More words:

- Da-den - I'm pretty sure this is his attempt at saying Landon :)

- Tee - tree
- Pa - pacifier
- Pee - please
- Tuck - truck
- Trac - tractor
- Bee - beep beep (backing up sound of the tractors)
- Boo - blue (currently Caleb's favorite color)
- Gee - green
- Poople - purple
- Soo - shoe(s)
- Mo - more (no longer just a sign for this request)
- Bak - bike
- Shi-Shi - fishie
- Bear
- Duck
- Shee - sheep
The list goes on, but I can't remember them all...

More signs:
- Car / Drive
- Thank You
- Airplane
- Banana

Aside from these that he uses regularly, Caleb will randomly repeat many other words that he hears us using...