Words (Part 1)

What are a baby's first words? How do you really know when she "has" a word? Is it the first time that she utters a series of sounds that perfectly matches the sounds we use to represent a word? What if that utterance mimics a word that Mamma just said? What if it's not in context? What if it is in context, but she only says it the one time and then never again? Or, is it actually when she uses a set of sounds that may not sound quite "right", but she uses it consistently to communicate a predictable meaning - is that a first word?

These are my musings of late... and I don't really have solid answers, but I've decided for now to count them all as steps along the journey to speech. (quite cute ones, too :)
Sophia is communicating. She is babbling up a storm and she has words. I don't know if I can actually say she is talking yet... I'm not sure where that fuzzy fine line is that says they have enough recognizable words for a stranger to say they can talk...but she is somewhere so close to that line. She surprises me every day with her new little grasps of language.

So, the first word that she really seemed to understand and use for meaning was Mama. That was back around 10 months. Of courses, that mostly still comes out when she's upset or can't figure out where I am. But these days she's using it interchangeably with Mum.
Then she got Dada, and still uses that occasionally though not as often as she did at first.
Since then, she seems to have two different kinds of words. There are the ones she has said perfectly, in context, completely un-promped, pointing at an object or grabbing it...but then has never said again (yet. To my knowledge.) :

bath (baf - ok, she didn't say the th)
balloon (she may have missed the l sound, but the word was very clear)
duck
shoe (she actually picked it up and was trying to put it on. She tries that most days, without usually saying the word.)
good (With this one she was repeating something I had just said. But she said it perfectly with a big smile. Made my day!)

The other kind of words that she has are the ones that a stranger might not be able to recognise, but she says consistently in context so that Dan and I can easily understand what she is saying. She has 2 of these now:
Maaa - more. Which pretty much means "Give me whatever it is I want right now please because I'm using a nice voice" It's usually used for food and drinks, but also occasionally for toys or anything else she wants you to get for her.
And then there's this kind of gutteral sound ukkk, accompanied by head-shaking which she uses to mean yucky or I shouldn't put that in my mouth cause my Mama would say it's yucky.

Oh, and she has one word that best crosses both categories - ello. She has said it a few times, in context, very clearly. Sometimes she picks up her toy mobile phone, puts it to the back of her head (she still can't quite find her ear - it's so cute!) and says ello!! Other times she waves at her favourite tv show - Playschool - and greets it. But I have yet to see her actually say Hello to a person. She waves.
She uses signs. We didn't think we were teaching her baby signs, we actually decided not too because we were just too lazy for that. But she uses signs anyway. I guess a lot of babies do. She waves for hello, and goodbye. She shakes her hands furiously in front of her body for no and reaches out one hand stretching in front of her for yes, I want that. You can't rely on her head for those signs - she shakes it back and forth for both :)
One of the absolutely cutest communication tools in her repetoire is the most recent sign she made up all by herself! She is absolutely fascinated with washing her hands lately. She loves when I put a little drop of liquid soap in her hands and let her rub them together and make bubbles, then splash it all off. That is one of her favourite parts of the day! And since we always wash her hands and face after eating, she started telling her silly parents when she didn't want them to give her anymore food (or drink or whatever else) by rubbing her hands together like she's washing them. That is her sign for finished - washing her hands. She taught it to us, and we use it happily (there's a lot less screaming at the end of mealtimes now :)

So I guess I can safely say she has at least 5 words, to possibly 10, (depending on how you count them), and 5 communication signs. Of course, she understands so much more than I can keep track of. She can do things when she hears verbal or non-verbals clues - touch her head if you ask her where it is, grab her her hair if you talk about combing it, clap her hands if she hears people on tv in the other room clapping. She can find belly buttons and give kisses upon request. She knows what her socks are and can find them. She will usually take her dummy out of her mouth and hand it to you quite happily if asked. She babbles in long sentence-like strings that are indecipherable, except that it's obvious if she is telling a story, asking a question, or being a bit bossy. Those are the things I can think of at the moment...but she probably understands more than I know at any given minute.

I probably don't need to tell you how excited I am to get to watch her first language develop, do I? And you know I had to label this post Part 1, because as soon as she starts sponge-ing up a whole heap of new words, you're going to get a Part 2 in the form of a long list of her first words. You know I have always been a language nerd. But I never loved it as much as this! This rocks my world :)

News Update

Changes happen so fast in Sophie's life. now. I guess I was supposed to know that, but somehow it still takes me by surprised.
I need to ammend some of the statements I made in the blog I posted about a week ago...it's quite outdated it seems.

Sophie crawls - well and everywhere. she crawls around the house, exploring it. She opens drawers and cupboards, pulls everything out and throws it all into a pile. Occasionally she stacks it into a neat pile - if it's something wide and flat like books or dvds, and if she's in the mood. We are quickly catching up to all the baby-proofing we'd put off, thanks to our somewhat lazy baby. Something has switched inside her, and suddenly she wants to move- to follow us, to climb up things and people...and to stand on her feet! she actually seems to enjoy it. I go to set her down in her favourite sitting position, and she chooses to stand instead. with something or someone to hold onto still, but she's happy. She will stand there and chat to me, sing with me and dance to the music. Is this my baby? the same one who just one month ago screamed at me for making her bare any weight on her feet at all? she is gaining confidence and leg muscles...and speed!

Also, she can stack a block on top of another. Just all of a sudden.
She stacks nesting blocks and cups inside each other.
She scribbles on paper with Jumbo Crayolas. Quite happily and confidently. Her first 2 scribble drawings are proudly displayed on the refrigerator. You should come by and have a look!
:)

11 months...and counting

She's so smiley these days. This was a stay-home-with mama day.
Enough hair now for a hairclip... such a big girl. she doesn't even pull it out...usually.
Sophie just adores her Nanna and Granddad!

We wanted her on her tummy for a cute baby shot with cousin Oskar, but She was determined to push herself back up into a sitting position. Thus, the face!

Wake up Sebastian! Time to play with me!

Cousins, clapping...cute.
My mothers' group had a birthday party for all the bubs, in the park about 2 weeks ago. Sophie got so excited being around all those people and other babies. She loved ripping up the wrapping paper. and she got her own mobile phone. she likes it, but it doesn't really stop her from trying to ring people from mine.

Some of us mums & bubs pose for a shot. Sophie tells us all a story, very noisily. I think it has something to do with the big tree.
Sophie and a couple of her girlfriends.

This video was from a couple of days ago in the backyard. We were thinking about calling family on the phone. Sophie shows off a few of her tricks.


It is a time for reflection...nearly a year. So far gone from that tiny premmie we brought home from hospital. So her own independent little person. Messy, needy, curious, smile-y little person.

Some of the things Sophie does these days...
She crawls! she does not Bottom shuffle. She crawls to get toys and then backs right back up to sitting to play with them. She tries to climb up mama's leg.
She feeds herself. and her hair. everything is finger food these days...even porrage and pasta.
She drinks from a cup without spilling (finally! for months her favourite game was to hold a massive mouthful of water in her cheeks, swallow the bit she wanted, and then shoot the rest out like a fountain. and laugh. ugg. and she needed a whole new outfit after every meal. We were just about to try wrapping her in a garbage bag before giving her a cup...but then she matured! ;)
She eats dinner with the family. It's a messier event than I ever imagined, but she's happy, so we're happy.
She plays lovely original compositions on her xylophone...and she beats out her own rythm on anything that could be a drum.
As you can see in the video of course, she claps. been doing that for months, loves it! She also waves hello and goodbye (sometimes upon request)... to people she likes...to the house, to the car, to the childcare centre... :)
She shakes her head no and possibly says "na." more and more she seems to be trying to use words...using phrases that sound purposeful and undeniably close to English... but whether or not she actually "has" these words, we're unsure. One of these phrases is "what's this?"
But she definately says Mama and dada.
She picks up several things with one hand and throws them behind her. she's trying to learn to throw, but throwing forward is still tricky. She mostly drops from as high as she can reach.
She is a champion lift-the-fapper.
She sings. nobody's sure what she's singing, but we're sure that she is :)
She makes me laugh.

Oh- a cute story: We were playing with paper towel on the floor. She wanted to rip it all up into tiny pieces...which was fine with me as long as I was with her, so that at the first sign of "I-wonder-what-this-tastes-like.." I was there to snatch it up and pull a face and say "Yucky Yucky!" She found that hilarious. It worked. She held up another piece and pulled the same face, saying "Kak-Kak" (or something like that.) So maybe that's a word too. not sure. she did the same thing the following day with handfulls of dirt & grass in the backyard. but those were the only times she said it.

But there are a few other people in this house besides her majesty! Her dad flies aeroplanes every day! (YEAY!) He loves it. He's got one more month of training left to be a flight instructor. It's very difficult work. He looks awesome in a pilot uniform!

I've been writing report cards as usual at this time of year. Doing the fine balancing act between demanding/rewarding job and demanding/rewarding motherhood. The last month or so the balance has felt a little askew... it usually does at the end of semester, but this year has been full on with new arrivals and heaps going on at school. Things seem to be coming back into balance a bit now though. And I have 2 weeks off for winter holidays next week.

Better go...never ending working and playing to be done :)

Rolling and chatting

Want to see our really cute 9-month old? :)