First Words!

This will be a quickie post because I'm in Evanston preparing for a presentation for the department, but I wanted to be sure to let everyone know: Liam said his first word!

Sunday night it started with him imitating the "woof woof" sound in his Boynton "Puppies barking and counting" board book. Every time I got to "five dogs woof woof" he would say very quietly "woof" and when we got to "9 dogs in the moonlight aahhhhooooo" he would say "aooo" We were thrilled that he was imitating sounds he heard. And we didnt have to wait long.

The next morning there was an orange on the floor in the kitchen that I had been letting him play with. He saw it, and the entire time he was crawling towards it, he said "bah, bah bah" and when he picked it up he proudly said "bah!" and held it out to me. We put him through the paces, putting several different things on the table in front of him and saying "Liam, which one is the ball?" and each time he would pick up the ball, hold it out and say "Bah!"

This morning while feeding him breakfast before we headed to the airport I could swear he started to say "more" as well. We do the baby signs religiously at every meal, so he signs for "eat" and then "more" when he wants more. I asked him "more?" and he made the sign and said "mah." Each time he repeated the sign, he said "mah."

What an awesome little baby. No video yet though. He is too enamored of the camera so when he sees it he stops what he's doing. Will keep trying.


side note, in case you are wondering: I'm glad for the help the early intervention teacher gave us to really get signing and language practice going for him. And even if this would have happened on its own without any help from us, I'd still rather be wrong (about him needing help) than too stubborn or proud to get him help he may have needed. My understanding is that we continue with the Early Intervention teacher once a week for at least 6 months when he will be re-evaluated, and that if at any time we want to quit the program before then we may.