Ethan has probably been talking for weeks, if not months. He first said "Dada" at 7 months. He first said "Mama" at 8 months. In the past couple of weeks, he's been saying "ba" for ball, and a couple of times, he's gone up to the bookcase, grabbed a book, and said "boo." However, it's hard to tell when "dada" and "mama" stopped being babbles and started meaning mommy and daddy. And do "ba" and "boo" really count as words? Because of this confusion, we'd held off on counting any of this as his first words.
Finally, a "scientific" method was declared to determine when Ethan says his first word:
1) It has to be unprompted. This means what you can't say "Say mama/dada/ball." The word has to come from him. However, it is acceptable to say "Ethan, what's that?"
2) It has to be repeatable. Just doing it once does not suffice.
3) It has to be clear enough and close enough to the actual word that he is indisputably saying dada/mama/ball.
Today, we achieved all three criteria. Ethan's first word? Kitty. Or more exactly, "Ditty!" since he can't quite make that "k" sound. Ethan has loved the cats for months, excitedly grabbing at them and chasing them around the house. He's said "ditty" or "datty" in reference to the cats before, but today was the first time he said it meeting the above requirements. His daddy held him and pointed out Toby, asking "Who is that? What do we call that?" Ethan let out an excited, "Ditty!" before struggling out of his daddy's arm to attack. Shortly afterwards, Ethan was faced with both Toby and Henry. "What do we call them, Ethan?" "DITTY!!!" he cried in a high-pitched squeal. And there you have it. His first word!
As a result of this achievement, I think we're basically out of major milestones for the time being. This week he also finally started clapping and waving bye-bye. He walks. He talks. What else are we waiting on?
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