Baby Babbles

A baby babbling has to be one of the cutest sounds in the world. Kaelyn has gotten to the point where her ramblings are starting to sound like real words. She says mamamama a lot! I like that quite a bit. Her other favorite is blah blah blah. That makes me wonder...is that what she's hearing all day when she listens to me talk? Blah blah blah? And now she's trying to repeat what I'm saying?! :) One time recently she saw me come into the room, reached her arms up to me and said mamamama. I don't imagine that she MEANT it that way but I sure melted at the thought that she knew I was mama and wanted me!

I have to admit, as a first time mom, I really have no idea what I'm doing. But it seems logical and reasonably and even smart to me to continuously talk to my baby. And talk I do! Whether it's out of loneliness, to break the silence, or just for something to do, we talk all day long. When Kaelyn first gets up in the morning I tell her what we're going to do after she eats. When she's done eating I tell her what we're going to do that day. While she's taking a bath I tell her about the weekend plans. Whatever comes to mind, really. I'm sure to anyone overhearing it may sound strange. Actually, I HAVE gotten a few weird looks in the grocery store for talking to a kid who so obviously can't talk back. But what do I care? She's my buddy and we're going to chat, even if I have to do all of the chatting! For all the weird looks I get I probably get just as many endearing looks. I just don't notice that!

Someday Kaelyn will know exactly what laundry is and where the bathroom is and what color the blocks we play with are. All because I tell her constantly. All because I talk to her all the time. Well, there will probably be more to it than that, but it makes me feel like I'm participating in her learning process!

Her first baby babble wasn't even really a babble, it was a fun motor boat sound she made with her lips. CONSTANTLY. I knew I would have trouble getting her back to sleep at night when I could hear her making that noise in her crib through the monitor. Uh oh, Kaelyn's awake and she's having a great time with her lips! Then, sometimes when we would play "where's the baby" (otherwise known as peak-a-boo) as soon as I would cover her with the blanket, the motor boat noise would begin. The second I took the blanket off of her, the noise would stop. I guess she was trying to direct me to where she was.

When she started making noises that sounded more like words, dada seemed to be prevalent. I was like, hey, no fair! I spend all day everyday with you, the least you can do is say mama for me! And she since has. Like I said, mama and blah blah are her favorites at the moment. Not that she most likely means anything by them. Though I have to admit, I DO refer to myself in the third person as I rant to her all day long. "After Mama brushes her teeth, we'll go take a bath." "Mama's going to make you some cereal now." and so on. Lucky kid! hehe ;)

Another thing I've done with Kaelyn pretty much since she was born was read to her. And I didn't start with the typical board books either. No, Kaelyn and I read novels and People magazine. Sometimes Guideposts, whatever I felt like reading. Since at that point I knew she didn't care, it was more just the sound of my voice, I figured I may as well read what I wanted to read! We have since graduated from full blown novels to board books like the classic "Bubbles Bubbles" and so forth. She now enjoys looking at the pictures and pounding on the book. I have to keep my magazines out of her reach or they meet an unfortunate end. I give her junk mail to rip and wrinkle and she enjoys that but she still seems to want MY magazines!! Figures.

I can't wait for the day when Kaelyn looks at me and says mama and means it. I pretend like she does now. Though sometimes she says it continuously for an entire day no matter what she's doing. I'm still not sure where she got blah blah but it sure is cute.