First Words!

The other weekend when T/M and their daughter R visited, we were seeing them out, standing at the door waving/saying bye, and right after the door closed, we heard Zoë say "Ba-ba", like bye-bye, while waving.  We were fairly certain this was her first word.  Be became convinced over the next hours/days when she repeated the word while waving in appropriate circumstances.  Wow, her first word!  At 10 months and 1 day old!

Here's the really amazing part: she has followed that one up with several more!  She's got "kitty", which sounds like "ki-seeeeeeee" where the seeeee is a kind of hiss.  And she is working heavily on "uh oh!", which sounds just right, but isn't always used in the correct context yet, and "thank you", which sounds like "dah oooo" with a particular pitch/inflection, but isn't always used in the correct context yet either.

She's still got all of her babble going, her "dadadada", "mamamamama", "nanana", "bababa", and of course, we got an imitated "papa" the other day.  The difference between the babble and the words is that the words are always 1-2 syllables only, used in a context, with the same pitch/intonation/inflection, and the babble is just one syllable that goes on and on and on.  She basically goes all over the house saying "dadadada" right now.

So this last week has been a big one for her - 2-4 words, plus she is now really walking freely.  She'll let go of a wall or furniture and venture out into open space now, which is a significant development.

The other development that we saw last weekend was her desire to spoon-feed herself.  She can't successfully scoop her food yet, but she can maneuver the spoon into her mouth once the food is on it.  So she and I danced a delicate dance during solid meals this weekend: she sat in her high chair with a spoon in each hand, I had a spoon, and a spare on the table.  She'd try to scoop food, I'd help her, she'd jerk the spoon out of my hand because I didn't let go fast enough, and shove it in her mouth.  P and I would applaud her feat, and I'd follow the spoonful with a spoonful from my hand before she could realize what was happening.  Then we'd do it again.  But goodness help me if I tried to help too much, or sneak too many spoonfuls into her mouth without her involvement - she was really telling me what she thought!

She was fussy in general this weekend, for her.  She was getting over her ear infection on Friday, but I couldn't find a good reason for it on Saturday/Sunday.  She'd yell at us if we put her down.  Or if we picked her up.  It was like she wanted what she wanted when she wanted it, and her stupid clueless parents just couldn't get on board.  It was rough.  Luckily it was a little better yesterday evening, and after yesterday's freaking out, I was just trying to be in the (fun/happy) moment with her.

Oh, which brings me to her 2 new favorite songs.  Preston has had this thing lately for Everlong by the Foo Fighters.  Z loves to dance to it.  And we are proceeding with my first watch of every Star Trek episode ever made - we are on season 4 of Voyager now - during breastfeeding sessions.  Z loves the Voyager opening credits song.  She hears the first 3 notes, unlatches herself, looks over at Stevie the TV, and smiles and squeals.  My little Trekkie.  Gotta get 'em early.  :-)