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One of the most glorious and happy-tears jerking moments of parenthood is when your little one gleefully opens their mouth to utter ‘Mama’! Or even ‘dada’ to not let the dads reading this feel left out.
Your child’s first words are one of the many memorable milestones of their lives and even yours. I mean you almost wait till a year to about 18 months to just hear them speak that simple two syllable word. One that is enough to fill your heart up with a warm joy that words cannot explain!
But your baby’s first real words are not ‘mama’ or ‘dada’. Granted they are the universally spoken first words but those are words you expect your baby to say as you’ve been pretty much teaching it to them since they were born.
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No, your baby’s first real words can be something else entirely, depending on the kind of living situations your child is exposed to, and the things (both living and non-living) they are surrounded by. And these first words are something you’ll only hear when your baby is more than 18 months old and past the stage of the simple ‘mama’ and ‘dada’.
It is quite fascinating to watch them exercise their little brains to figure out everything that’s around them so that they can remember it and call it by and learn how to communicate!
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I remember my eldest child’s second first-word. It was noodles! There was this noodle commercial on the television at that time whose jingle used to make him really happy and throw his arms up in the air as if he was dancing! And whenever we used to go to the supermarket, he’d always point out to the same packet of noodles and squeal ‘noodles’ like it was all he ever wanted on this planet!
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My daughter ever since she was born loved the cat we had. She would chase him around everywhere and would just quietly observe doing his thing. Even our cat loved my daughter so much that she would be the only one who he would curl up against and purr softly. Hence, it came as no surprise that her first word was ‘cat.’ She’s 10 now and her love for animal hasn’t faded in the slightest. Everywhere she goes, she makes new kitty and doggy friends, with most of them tailing her back to our house!
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My third kid, whose just about 5 right now, spoke the word ‘bat’ again and again and again once he found out that the name of his favorite little toy was quite easy to pronounce! Young as he might be, he loves playing cricket and baseball, both in their real and video game versions. In fact, after bat, his next obsession was ‘ball’, which is forms a whole set of related words!
Looking back, it’s fun to see that those words they spoke were not just ordinary words. They were indicators of their personalities and what they would grow up to be. You never notice it then but you realize later that these second first-words are actually the important words, acting as signs of what your child loves and enjoys the most. At least in that period of their lives!
Watch out for your child’s first real words. They may totally surprise you with their knowledge of the world and what they consider to be their favorite thing! And who knows, you may even find out what they’re meant to be when they grow up by just listening to the first words they ever learn to speak!
