Babble

Oliver's always been quite a babbler, but, lately, he's started really stringing different syllables together. He constantly says nonsense words like, "Manamba," and "Gabadakuh." And, of course, he accidentally says real words, too, like "boy" and "hi."

Today, I was trying to play ball with him again (he's not a fan), and he babbled, "bah." I tried to encourage him to keep saying it and showed him his ball. "That's right! Ball!" He would repeat "bah" to both me and Andrew, but, to him, it was just a fun game of repeating sounds. He wasn't actually saying "bah" referring to the ball. He does that with "mama," too. One day, he'll learn these sounds have real meaning to us!

We're Talking

I think Oliver has reached a major milestone to start talking: He now responds to us verbally.

It began with clicking. He was done nursing and started to click his tongue. I clicked back at him, and he clicked back. This went on for about 5 minutes. Andrew got home, and I showed him. The following morning, they had a clicking conversation, too.

Then came the piggy faces. Oliver made a funny face at me, where he scrunched up his face and kind of snorted. It looked just like a piggy face. I did that back to him, and he started cracking up. He made it back, and then I made it back to him. Now, making the piggy face is one of his favorite things, and he does it all the time. He's doing it now as he plays with his bucket next to me.

Yesterday, he was babbling as normal. He said, "Mamamamamam." I often repeat his sounds back to him, and he's usually fascinated by it. Yesterday, however, he repeated it back again to me. I clapped for him, and he got really excited. We said, "Mamamamam," back and forth a few times. After Andrew got home, I tried to get Oliver to say, "Mamamamam," again, but he couldn't remember how. I'll have to wait for him to make the sound and try again.

This is so exciting! It's so much fun to "talk" to my boy!