Da Da Da? I Dan't Think So!

Last week brought us Raegan's six month well baby visit. As we suspected, she is amazing and lovely. Really, all is quite well. Doc gave us the go ahead to start solids, but I'm in no rush. She's over 16 lbs. with chunky little legs, so I don't think she's wasting away by any means. He does think it would help her sleep longer at night but whatever. We'll get there (solids and more sleep) when we get there.

One little red flag, though, came up during her visit. As usual, before going back to the exam room (where we always sit and wait for years, it seems), I filled out the little four or five page survey about how she's developing. Also as usual, she hit most of the marks in the "yes, already doing that" column. The one "Not yet" that I marked, though, really caught me off guard.

So far I have considered Raegan to be quite vocal/verbal/noisy. She is making sounds all the time and most of them are quite loud, so why wouldn't I think she was vocal/verbal/noisy?? But when I got to the survey question, "Does Baby make 'da' 'ba' 'ga' (and some other sound) noises?" I had to sit back and go, "Huh. No, she does not!" When I thought about it some more, I realized that I have mistaken  her constant squeaks and squawks as talking. I don't know that she has ever made a "da" "ba" "ga" (or some other sound) noise in her little six month life!

Of course this sent me into developmental panic mode (not really, but it was still a little concerning, so I tried to game plan a solution anyway). What to do? The girl must learn to speak as proper six-month-olds speak!

Language Lessons began immediately after we got home.

Me: Ba, ba, ba, ba? Can you say, "ba, ba" Raegan?

Raegan: *grins* and then squeals!!

Me: How about Da? Can you say, "da, da, da, da"?

Raegan: *smirks* *raises eyebrow mischievously* (just like her brother and just like her uncle, John) and LAUGHS!!!

Me: Oh, my. I can see this is going nowhere. And you just turned 15.

So there you have it. Clearly she gets it, or at least understands a lot of what I'm saying, and has decided that she will already go about this (talking, the world, life in general) in her own way. Will she be heard? You betcha she will, because the girl doesn't just squeak and squawk - she does so with GUSTO!