My Verbal Girl.

One of the major mile-stones that all parents look forward to is when the baby utters their first word. Before that, there is a LOT of verbal activity. Cali's most immediate noise is the traumatized wail, which roughly translates: “AAH What a bright, cold world!” She quickly learned that the same noise would get her fed, so we got a lot of it.

The first pleasant noise she made was cooing during a feeding, my Papa told us to look for this one, as it had been a favorite for him. Eventually, she learned to make excited noises; little squeals when she sees something that takes her fancy. This is how we knew that she'd come to recognize the dog. She then moved on to making ambiguous vowel noises at us, as though she was mimicking the conversations she watched. My favorite, though, is the gurgling noises, she and I have had many a Wookie conversation.

Last weekend, my lovely girls went to Peterborough (about 2 hours away) to visit Andrea's best friend. (“BFF” would be appropriate, since they've been friends since Kindergarten) By way of a little back-story, this friend – I'll call her Caitlin – is like a fertility avatar. She has three kids, two of which are multiples. After she'd come for a visit a little over a year ago, Andrea tested positive for Bambino. Months later, when we went to visit her, was the first time I felt the baby kick. Last Saturday, Andrea called me from there at 9:30AM to tell me that Cali had said “Mum.” Andrea would have questioned whether she'd heard properly, but Caitlin and her girls were there, looking at her with saucer-sized eyes, and then chanting “mum-mum-mum-mum” to Cali to try to get a repeat-performance out of her.

As much as I'm sorry to have missed it, I'm not surprised. Firstly, because Caitlin is like a lightning-rod for childhood development (did I mention that she's a teacher?). Secondly, Cali and
I had a little chat months ago. “Cali,” I said, “you're mom's really doing the lion's share of the work here, so it's only fair that you wait for her to be present for your first word. I'd like to be there too, but the important part is that mom's there, cool?”
Atta girl.