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rivkaI held Alex up to the mirror this morning. She grinned and crowed, as usual. As usual, I asked her, "Who is that girl?"
And she said, clearly, "A-leh." Accent on the first syllable. Unmistakably her name.
I've thought for more than a month now that she sometimes trys to imitate her name when she hears it a lot of times in succession, which usually happens in front of the mirror. This week, my niece independently reported that Alex mimicked "A-leh" in front of the mirror. But this time I hadn't even said it. She just answered my question.
I swear I don't wanto be one of those crazy "my baby is a genius" mothers who imagines that random baby actions are signs of purposeful intelligence. ("He played peek-a-boo before we'd even left the hospital!") It took me a long time, and other people's agreement, to conclude that she really is purposefully saying "hi." I have no illusions that "Mmamamamamum" means "Mama." But I am dead certain that Alex just used her name in conversation. It didn't sound like any of the rest of the morning's babble, which has been running to things like "THAAAAH-thah-thah-thwah."
In the past couple of days, she's been saying "Mama" more often. It's still not at all clear that she means me, but she's saying it as a two-syllable word, not as part of a long string of syllables. And she's imitating speech sounds these days, too, albeit without any real signs of comprehension. For example, my mother was showing her a plastic turtle. "Can you say 'turtle?'" Alex said, "Tur-dur." Today I asked her, "Are you ready for breakfast?" She said, "Be-fuh." Obviously those don't count as talking, but talking really seems to be coming right up.
Holy cow. She's only eight months old.
And she said, clearly, "A-leh." Accent on the first syllable. Unmistakably her name.
I've thought for more than a month now that she sometimes trys to imitate her name when she hears it a lot of times in succession, which usually happens in front of the mirror. This week, my niece independently reported that Alex mimicked "A-leh" in front of the mirror. But this time I hadn't even said it. She just answered my question.
I swear I don't wanto be one of those crazy "my baby is a genius" mothers who imagines that random baby actions are signs of purposeful intelligence. ("He played peek-a-boo before we'd even left the hospital!") It took me a long time, and other people's agreement, to conclude that she really is purposefully saying "hi." I have no illusions that "Mmamamamamum" means "Mama." But I am dead certain that Alex just used her name in conversation. It didn't sound like any of the rest of the morning's babble, which has been running to things like "THAAAAH-thah-thah-thwah."
In the past couple of days, she's been saying "Mama" more often. It's still not at all clear that she means me, but she's saying it as a two-syllable word, not as part of a long string of syllables. And she's imitating speech sounds these days, too, albeit without any real signs of comprehension. For example, my mother was showing her a plastic turtle. "Can you say 'turtle?'" Alex said, "Tur-dur." Today I asked her, "Are you ready for breakfast?" She said, "Be-fuh." Obviously those don't count as talking, but talking really seems to be coming right up.
Holy cow. She's only eight months old.
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Date: 2005-12-31 09:14 pm (UTC)Oh, good heavens no! The "conversation" was along the lines of
"Booh."
"Yes, your quilt is blue. So's your onesie, it's just a different shade of blue."
"Ah."
"No, really, both these colors are called blue. The quilt is bright blue, and the onesie is light blue."
"..."
"And the heart on your quilt is red, and it has your name on it, here: Jack."
"..."
"Um, Tammy, he's spitting up again." [gag, run away]