First Things First

When it comes to counting firsts in our house we are quite strict. For instance we didn't say that Iz could walk until she had mastered 5 unaided steps in a row. To some people that may sound tough, but I think it is good to keep the bar high from the start. The same goes for first words. I know many people who chose first sounds as their babies first words however, it is no coincidence that the words for mother in numerous languages contain the 'ma' sound. I can understand why people would do this. They want to check boxes that mean their child is developing, that their kid is smart, that, as parents they are doing a good job. I am not knocking any of those reasons...I want to check those boxes too, but if we were to follow the same rules then Iz's first word was 'lanolin'. She, amazingly, mastered this word when she was 6 weeks old. She decided to dazzle us with it while we were eating breakfast one morning. Clearly she was pleased enough with her own skills as she never said it again...either that or she had put all her efforts into an intriguing choice only to find she had very little day to day application for it.
We were such cruel taskmasters when it came to first words we even made rules. Mama, dada and baba were out of the race, even if she said them first they wouldn't count. Furthermore, we wanted her to actually be able to identify what she was talking about. This may seem a little tough, considering she was still under 1 year old, but we had our reasons. If we chose mama as her first word then she would share that with millions of other kids. Furthermore actually identifying something is a huge step, but if we gave away the first word rosette to a babbled sound months earlier, then we would have no way to celebrate it. What would we call it .. her first identification? Doesn't exactly have a nice ring to it. In the end she chose 'book' and in my opinion that is a very good first word.

She has since added about 60 or so words to her repertoire along with a little American Sign Language. She can currently sign gorilla, cat, water, apple, train and a few more. I feel we have fulfilled our obligations as a parents knowing that should our little one encounter a deaf gorilla on an train in need of water for his pet cat she can easily orchestrate a trade for a fresh apple. She can even be polite as she knows how to sign 'please'. 'Please' is by far the best word she has learned. As a word it is unparalleled in its usefulness I think. To sign 'please' you make circles with your open palm in the area of your chest. She picked this up very quickly and before long was pleasing all over the place. Sadly if you don't know the word for what you want this can make things more difficult. Iz would often nod and rub harder and harder at her chest, becoming increasingly frantic and desperate, pleading with us in the most determined show of good manners, while we helplessly tried to guess what it was she wanted.  It was a cute, but often pitiable sight.

These days her vocabulary seems to increase by the hour and she has recently learned her little brother's name. She pronounces it Maisin... it sounds very similar to raisin so on occasion she mixes up the two.  Recently she has begun pointing at the cupboard above the fridge where we keep the snacks and asking for Mason- of course while also frantically rubbing at her tummy to say please and wearing a concerned pleading expression. I mention this mostly so that should you see this first hand you do not misread the situation. As of yet we have not taken to keeping our son in a cupboard above the refrigerator - nor do we let Iz gnaw on him whenever she feels a tad peckish.

So just in case you were wondering, first bike rides must be without stabilizers, perhaps downhill and there may be fire involved, first swims will be conducted in the ocean, preferably with decent waves/ sharks and first boyfriends... well she will be at least 25 so she can probably make that choice for herself.