Conversations with Babies
Davy has a scattering of useful words now: “Up!” “Bye,” “Mama,” “Da,” and the ever-useful “uh-oh,” but what he mostly says, over and over, is “Hi.” Dozens and dozens of times a day: “Hi! Hi!” And often this is followed by a kiss, always delivered with a dramatic, vocalized “mmmm-wah!”
It’s the first thing we hear in the morning: “Hi! Mmmm-wah!” Sometimes if he wakes up in the night he’ll give me a sleepy “hi,” and a kiss, before rolling over to go back to sleep.
It got me to thinking: basically, the first thing we wanted to tell him when he was born, the most important thing we’ve been repeating over and over every day since, was “Hello! We love you!” Not always in words, but most of what we say to him is aimed in some way at reinforcing that essential message. “You exist! We love you!”
It just slays me that he’s gotten the point so clearly, and is returning it in his simple baby way. “Hi! Mwah!” Hello and I love you. What else is there, really, to say?
December 21st, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Nawwwwwwwwww….
Indeed, when electronic devices first stir towards sentience, often the first thing they say is HELLO WORLD. Sadly, they don’t seem to love us. Thank goodness for the first law of robotics.
December 22nd, 2011 at 8:25 am
Oh, I *love* that! :o) “Uh-oh” is one of Echo’s favorite and most frequently employed baby-words… she’s recently added “Mmmm!” (to indicate the mind-blowing delight of bananas) and “That!” (said over and over while pointing: “That! That! That! I want that! Give me that! I must have that! and take that! and explore that and discover that and learn about that by cramming it all in my mouth! That! That! That!”). Looking forward to the someday “I love you.”
December 22nd, 2011 at 9:22 am
Oh, Davy does “Mmmmm!” too! I get a special thrill every time something I’ve cooked gets an “mmmm” from him — especially as the bigger one gets pickier!
He also says “da” while pointing: I’m pretty sure it translates to “that,” except when it means Daddy, or sometimes “yes” (yeah?). It’s an all-purpose word.