Nope, it’s not Mama
A baby’s first word is always thrilling for any parent. All the more so if the first word is ‘Dada’ or ‘Mama’.
I remember Joshua’s first word. It was ‘Mama’ and I was super excited when he meaningfully called out to me, “Mama!”. It gradually became ‘Mommy’, and still is today. I’m sure it’ll be shortened to ‘Mom’ in a few years time.
With Kaitlyn, bonding with her and gaining her trust was a crucial part at the beginning. She came home to us when she was 7 months old. Unlike Joshua, who was born to me and the bond was formed instantly from day 1, with Kaitlyn, I had lost out on the first 7 months of her life. Creating a mother and child bond was vital, as I wanted her to feel secure, that she wasn’t going to be taken away again.
Also, there was the matter of language. Where she came from, they didn’t speak English. So to her, English wasn’t familiar, but I kept speaking to her, singing to her, and even reading to her.
I had learnt about baby sign language years ago, but that was only after Joshua was already talking. So this time, I figured it’ll be a good chance to try it out.
The first sign that I taught her was ‘more’ as I never knew if she was full or wanted more to eat. She was already eating baby puffs and yogurt drops by the time she was 7 months old. She picked up the sign for ‘more’ quickly and was soon putting her hands together in glee for more food.
Next few baby signs learnt were ‘eat’, ‘all done’ and ‘milk’. As you can see, mostly food-related… Kaitlyn loves her food!
Soon she was responding to other signs and mimicking them: ‘water’, ‘book’, ‘shower’, ‘cat’ etc. Then she learnt the sign for ‘Mommy’, which ended up becoming this waving hand gesture at her ear according to her own translation of the sign. While exciting, this became a disadvantage because her first spoken word was not ‘Mommy’ or ‘Mama’ no matter how much I wished it was. Although she happily chants ‘Mum mum’, it was not to call me but to say she wants to eat.
Now, some friends had commented that by the time she was 12 months, perhaps she hadn’t spoken yet was because she was too comfortable using sign language. To me, I wasn’t too affected as I figured she’d speak when the time came. After all, she was already talking in baby-gibberish so that’s cute right? Plus, the grandparents, as well as friends, were amused to watch her signing away.
It was when we were all in the kitchen and I was calling out to my cat, Knight, and suddenly we heard this tiny little voice saying:
Nigh nigh!
There stood Kaitlyn, pointing at Knight, and calling out “Nigh nigh!”. She did this repeatedly, especially since we all responded excitedly seeing she was actually saying her first word.
So there it is…my baby’s first word is my cat’s name. And she continues to say it whenever she sees Knight.
Moral of the story? If you don’t want your baby’s first word to be your pet’s name, give it a harder-to-pronounce name.
Oh, she eventually called me ‘Mama’ about a month after that, so… phew!
Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.
William Makepeace Thackeray
