Isn't it fun, watching as babies begin to grasp the concepts of speech?
Way back in December (was that really only a couple months ago?), Catherine began to make ooh ooh and aah aah sounds. Shortly after, she progressed to "saying" eye eye and haa haa. Sweet, sweet sounds.
Before long, she'd progressed to the point of "chatting" with us - if we imitated back to her what she'd just "said," she'd keep going and going. We'd chat with her until she lost interest and threw mom and dad overboard in favor of Jay Jay the Jet Plane on PBS or chewing on her rings.
Her next progression was to shouting. Hey - if it's gotta be said, say it loud! Her daddy would plop her in the breakfast room in the bumbo or swing and start cooking...and a few minutes later, she'd start "chatting" at the top of her lungs. Very cute!
Next, she progressed to guttural noises - those raspy noises like she was clearing the back of her throat. Not too much of that, though...apparently, she won't be studying German in the future! :-)
The most exciting progression became imitation. She'd take a common phrase and "repeat" it back to us using only vowel sounds - the harder consonant sounds just weren't ready to come out yet. She was starting to move her tongue around for a wider range of sounds, but still only ready for vowels. Our favorite phrase was "eye uh oo." Her daddy began coaching her to say "mama," because he figured he'd get points not only for getting her to say her first word, but for getting it to be that one in particular. No dice...not yet.
But last night...oh, boy. Last night.
We were eating leftovers for dinner while watching a show DVR'd from Monday night - Two and a Half Men. The kiddo was propped up on the couch next to me (I know - we have like 4 different tables we could sit at, but we eat at the couch...) and was chewing away contentedly on a toy.
And then...it happened. A phrase was used in the show - the phrase she also hears most often from her mommy and daddy. And she repeated it. For real. Not just vowel sounds. Actual, honest to goodness words. Her stunned daddy stopped the show and we both stared at her in shock. I grabbed my cell phone to record in case she said it again.
But she was done. After that, sweet smiles and occasional giggles, but no more sounds for the evening. And, as my husband pointed out, she probably has no idea what she said. After all...she was just 5 months old on March 9th.
That doesn't matter! She said it, and those are just the sweetest words we've ever heard.
I love you.
Baby girl, we love you, too...so much!
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