1. Keep your food sources in metal or glass containers with secure lids. Mice can eat through cardboard, certain plastics, and other forms of containers to get at food. In order to cut down the mice's food supply, make sure that you don't leave any food out, or if you do, to put it in something that mice cannot get at.
At 18 months, children typically use around 50 (but we don't worry too much unless they have fewer than 10-20). At 24 months, children usually have an expressive vocabulary of 200-300 words (but we don't worry too much unless they have fewer than 50). At 3 years, children can have anywhere from 500-1,100 words in their vocabulary. By 5-7 years, children have an expressive vocabulary of 3000-5000 words.
Of course, the conversation becomes more meaningful when the child can actually form his or her own words. By 10 months, most kids understand between 5 and 10 words. The fastest 1/4 of them have up to 40 words! From 12 to 18 months (or thereabouts) is called the one word (or holophrastic) stage.