What counts as a word?
Everyone talks about their baby’s first word (either what it was or how they don’t remember what it was) but what counts as a first word?
We’ve been spelling out b-o-t-t-l-e for so long that I can’t remember when Nathan first realized what it meant, but I know the understanding came before he started using “bah” to mean bottle. And did “bah” (as in the ah of bah bah black sheep) for bottle come before or after “ba” (as in the a of all) for ball? And do these really count as First Words? Then there’s “mamamamamama”’s arrival and progression to “ma” and “mama” in the past month, but I’m pretty sure the ba’s came before the ma’s. And as sweet as a little boy calling his mama is, his more muted “ma” for yum and more came before the bright “ma” for mama.
So there you have it – as singers and parents we can happily identify the numerous “a” sounds with their varying consonants that Nathan comes up with, and some times we even know what he’s talking about, but we still couldn’t tell you what his first word was / is / might be.
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Leah just wrote about first words too. Harvey's was "dog".