Words

Someone asked me the other day what Amaya's first word was, and you know what? I couldn't remember it. I always swore I was going to be better than my mom was about remembering the details and for the most part I can still rattle off times, dates, weight, etc... but i was blanking on that magical 'first word'. And what I realized was that (for me at least) in the end it's actually somewhat of a nonevent. I expected babies to mostly cry or be silent until one day after about a year when they would just point to something and say 'ball' or 'dog' or 'mom' (wouldn't that be a nice reward after all that hard work?!?). But in reality, babies start babbling and experimenting with sounds and words after a few weeks.

Vinh, at 7 months old, is already differentiating his babble... which at play is gagaga or babababa but will change to mamamama or dadadadada when he sees or wants one of us. I'm not crazy saying my 7 month old is talking per se, and I'm not saying he's some rare genius it's pretty standard. So, is that a first word? Because he is relating a specific person to a specific sound right? Or is it only when he shortens it to mama or dada that it is considered talking? It's really more in retrospect that you can be sure.

Anyways, I still haven't remembered Amaya's first word, I'm sure I have it written down somewhere. My favorite words to remember, really, are the awesome semi-made-up ones they come up with when they can't pronounce or don't know the real word. For example the show 'Zoboomafoo' she has been calling 'Zimabinaboom' for months. Just last night she said "I want to watch Zoboomafoo. Wow, I said it! Zaboomafoo!"
I have forgotten so many good ones already as Amaya constantly refines her speech and learns the real pronunciations. I really need to compile a list somewhere so I will try to add them to this post as I remember them (and maybe Vinh's as he starts to add in!)

Weird things from Amayaland:
-she has a pink stuffed pig she calls her teddy bear
-she likes to make up words for the things she isn't familiar with something along the lines of 'commaconch' or 'comakumacunch' or 'cwumple'
-imaginary friend named ziggy?
-going through her set of play numbers and letters: 's, s is for snake; 2, 2 is for toothbrush; 5, 5 is for 5 dollar foot longs...'
-found-the-find glass = magnifying glass
-boo-ray!=hooray
-orngen= orange