Language Development

It's amazing to observe language development in a baby. Last December, when she was about 7 months old, Paige would launch into a diatribe of ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma, or da-da-da-da-da-da-da, or la-la-la-la-la-la-la. You'd hear that all day for two or three days on end, but then it would change to another option and you'd never hear it again.

Not long after that, she moved onto slightly more complicated noised. "Uhh-Duh!" (emphasis on "duh"), "Ahh-Duh!" (emphasis on "ahh"), and "Umm-Bah!" (emphasis on "bah") were fairly common utterances, but she had a variety of other "words" that she would say. They never seemed to be tied to anything in particular, though. One or two times we thought we heard her say "el-la", which is the name of our cat (after Ella Fitzgerald--she "sang" a lot when we first got her...that, and her previous name was Bella!), and we were certain that she was saying it in response to our kitty walking around. But it wasn't very consistent, and has since (mostly) disappeared from her vocabulary, so I think it was probably just a chance thing.

Tonight was different though. Sitting in her high-chair, Paige dropped her drink. I said "Uh-oh!" ... and Paige said "ee-oh" meekly in return. I didn't think that much about it at first, but then she started saying it time and time again...."eh-oh," "eh-oh," "eh-oh." I said "uh-oh!" back to her, and, looking right at me, she continued to say "eh-oh" over and over again. It really was as if she were trying to say those words!

I might not have thought much about it, but a half-hour later we were playing in the living room and she pushed a toy off of the couch. Again, I said "eh-oh!" And she responded again, a few times, "eh-oh." She had a look of great concentration on her face as she did it, and it always kind of faint--much different from her typical loud babbling. But it's hard not to think that she's really trying to say those words.

Pretty neat. I'm looking forward to seeing if she still will say "eh-oh" come morning.