She said the magic word!
Most children say “mum” or “mama” or “mummy” as one of their earliest words, apparently. Not our little bundle of joy - her first word was cat, followed by woof-woof, book and duck. I understood that these were all very important concepts, but I started to get impatient when her vocabulary expanded to include shoes, bike, chook, daddy, milk and okay but still didn’t include anything that was a name for me. I use the word mummy all the time, and if I asked where mummy was, she would point at me - so I knew she understood the word and what it meant. But months passed and if she wanted me, she just said “euuuuurgh!” As if that wasn’t bad enough, Talia went on to count from 1 to 10, her vocab expanded to over 90 words and she had words for orca, frog and dolphin… and would occasionally point at me and say maaa. Then just when I thought my ego couldn’t take it any longer, out it came last Thursday - clear as day, with a loving smile that made my heart melt - MUM!
Looking back at 2008
How did it get to be the middle of January 2009 already? It feels like the last 12 months have gone past in a blur, so I thought I would do a quick recap of some key milestones.
January 2008 (10 months, 7 corrected). Talia reaches 6kg. She is able to sit confidently and rolls from front to back (to avoid tummy time!) Breastfeeding comes to an end but she is able to hold a bottle by herself. We start baby sign language classes.
February 2009 (11 months, 8 corrected). Her first flight, to Sydney. First time in the rain, first trip to a restaurant. Our 8 month paed check-up rates her development at slow but within normal ranges, except for possibly speech where she has no consonants yet.
March 2008 (12 months, 9 corrected). Talia cuts her first tooth, celebrates her first birthday, passes the 7kg mark and is given the all clear by the opthalmologist at PMH.
April 2008 (13 months, 10 corrected). We start one-to-one physio sessions at KEMH to help Talia develop the skills she needs to be able to reach, turn, crawl and stand; at the moment she just sits in one place like a little Buddha. Talia decides to stop accepting food via spoon, and becomes almost entirely self-fed on finger food (plus bottles of formula). 2nd tooth arrives.
May 2008 (14 months, 11 corrected). 8kg. Talia rolls back to front for the first time, cuts 2 more teeth and starts to crawl.
June 2008 (15 months, 12 corrected). Talia starts cruising and clapping. At her 12 month corrected developmental review she assesses at 10.5 months on the Griffith’s test, but she is making good progress.
July 2008 (16 months, 13 corrected). Talia can now push a cart, climb up and down a step and shows some understanding of words such as names of her favourite toys.
August 2008 (17 months, 14 corrected). 9kg. Talia starts pointing and waving and climbs up the slide for the first time. She transitions to cow’s milk and one nap per day. She babbles a lot but only has 3 recognisable words (book, dog, cat).
September 2008 (18 months, 15 corrected). Talia says her fourth word (”dut” = duck). She loves going on the swing, reading books, balls, balloons and bubbles. We start baby swimming lessons.
October 2008 (19 months, 16 corrected). Talia takes her first few steps and her vocab reaches 20 words.
November 2008 (20 months, 17 corrected). Talia stands up without pulling herself up, walks independently for as far as she feels like, stacks boxes and scribbles, all for the first time.
December 2008 (21 months, 18 corrected). Talia’s vocab blossoms to over 50 words and she joins in singing nursery rhymes. She has all teeth apart from her 2yo molars. She can post shapes in a sorter and starts using the Auslan sign for “more”. She only crawls when in a hurry, or to go down steps.
It’s been a pretty amazing year.