First words

Besides babbling and nonsense, the first discernible word that Norah uttered was "Dada." I read in my bible, Baby 411, that dada is pretty common, as it's an easy sound to make, and that the word wasn't even really attached to Ryan or anything. Still, he gloated. And even though every squeak and coo that emitted from my sweetie's mouth was perfect and beautiful, I would revel in it, and then narrow my eyes at Ryan a little.

Next came "Mama," and life was good. Although it was spoken considerably less than dada, I was thrilled to hear it, and still am. Other sounds were pretty random; ha, la, buh, duh, etc. Although she put ha-la-buh together once and I was pretty sure her first official word was "halibut." Impressive.

But now, at 13 months, she is really starting to learn words and associate them to things. It is pretty exciting. Maybe it's old hat to veteran moms, but she might as well be splitting the atom to me.  

The first I noticed was "ball." It was one of those was-that-just--?! moments. She held her little green ball and slowly said, "baaaa." And then again. And again. And then we asked her to find the ball, and she found it. It was amazing. I still maintain that her first word was "halibut," though, when I'm feeling competitive.

The next words were "hop" (her bunny hops) and "ah-choo." I'm actually not sure if ah-choo is a real word, but we're counting it.  Grandma has a plastic giraffe with a moving head, and apparently it sneezes a lot. So ah-choo comes after she sees a giraffe. Grandma's a little worried about that. Norah also screeches "Caw!" every time she sees a bird; bluejay, chicken, duck, it doesn't matter. Grandma's also a little worried about that. I think she'll have it all sorted out by high school.

But it's really starting to hit me. I am (and Ryan) the leader. I am guiding her. I'm the one who is primarily responsible for her learning. It's terrifying. I could be sitting around, watching TV, commenting on Sarah Palin being a fucking moron, and my innocent little baby could decide to say her Bear Bear is a fucking moron. That's not good. Aside from the fact that Grandpa wouldn't like me influencing Norah's political leanings at such a young age (even though I suspect that she gets a fair dose of Fox News at my parents' house), little kids spouting off the f-bomb is somewhat frowned upon.

Swearing isn't my only concern, of course. Do I want her calling people names like her petty  mother does? And what about politics? What about religion? What about opinions on pretty much anything? I am the leader. Language is only at the very beginning. There's attitude, confidence, expectations... deep breath.

Maybe I'll just be happy that she said "ball" and leave it at that.