First Word!

So, Sam has been saying mama and dada for some time now, but we have never really been sure he knows what he is saying. It could just be baby babble.

Now we KNOW for sure that his first word is "baba", which he uses for milk/sippy cup. When he says it, it is different from baby babble in its clear and matter of fact tone. We have been teaching him a few baby signs (this is like baby sign language if you haven't heard of it). We've been working on "all done", "more", and "milk". Just this past week, he started doing the "milk" sign whenever he wanted his sippy cup. He does this by squeezing his hand, as if milking a cow. Then a few days ago, he started to attach "baba" to the "milk" sign, and he know does them both at the same time!

I can't tell you how proud we are of our little boy. I also can't imagine the pride we will feel when he does something really big like graduate from kindergarten (haha) or college! When I saw him do this for the first time, it actually made me cry with tears of happiness because there is no doubt that for the first time, he can actually communicate with us on a higher level. Of course, sometimes he does it now just because he knows he gets such a reaction out of us, and he just gets a big happy grin on his face, knowing he accomplished exactly what he wanted. I never realized that the pride you can feel for your child could be so intense. I love being a mom.

Check out the "baba" and "milk" video below.