First Words

Over the last couple of weeks, Taelyn has been talking a lot more than before and has actually started saying some of her first words. The first word came after Taelyn had pulled herself up to stand on the coffee table and then fell down. She instantly started crying and crawled straight toward me for comfort. In the midst of tears and moans, she called out "Maaaa" and landed in my lap. A similar situation reoccurred just last night where she called out my name again.

About a week later from the first word, Taelyn was bouncing and playing on Justin's lap when she started saying, "Dad-dy, Dad-dy, Dad-dy" over and over again. Since then, "daddy" is her favorite word, and she says it all the time. She doesn't always associate it with Justin, though. Sometimes her baby doll is daddy, the phone is daddy, and just about anything else she sees can be daddy.

Other than spoken words, we can tell that Taelyn can understand quite a few words as well. Whenever we tell her to give us kisses, she opens her mouth and smacks a big one on our cheeks. She also knows the words "ball" and "baby doll." Just yesterday I told her to go find her ball, and she looks around the room until she spotted and crawled right to it.

It has been really fun watching her figure out language and try out new sounds. On several occasions, we have said a word or two and it sounds like she imitates it afterward. And there are other times where it sounds like she says an entire phrase on her own, but we know this is just a coincidence.