The Race To Be the First Word

Pooky is pretty talkative. Sometimes, she gets in the mood to scream. Not in an angry way. She’s just expressing herself. Other times, she babbles contemplatively. She even makes little noises when she yawns, like I do. As she started to become more vocal, May and I began trying to plant certain ideas into her brain. May wanted her to say “mama,” I wanted her to say “dada.”

Until very recently, her babble consisted entirely of vowels, which made “mama” and “dada” seem quite far off. Lately, though, she’s added some consonants. It started with an “n” sound: “nana.” This had me worried; “n” is much closer to “m” than to “d,” at least in the geography of the alphabet. Once she started saying “nana,” I figured “mama” wasn’t too far behind. I was depressed. “Dada” still seemed a long way off, while “mama” was right around the corner. Or so I thought.

A couple of days ago, the three of use were hanging out on the sofa, relaxing. Baby was casually babbling. All seemed normal, until… “dada.” Dada! I don’t care whether there was any intention behind it. Pooky said her first word, and it was “dada.” The next day, she even said “Hi Dada!” At least, she made those sounds, or something very close to them. It was astonishing.

Reflecting back, I should have seen it coming. The physical action of making the “d” sound is actually very similar to the physical action of making the “n” sound, while the “m” sound requires a completely different manipulation of the mouth. Really, though, the physiological explanation is not important. Whether she actually knows what she’s saying is not important. Only one thing is important: I win.