Say My Name


Here are list of words that Max has said first; dada, oh yeah!, please, juice, boo boo (peek-a-boo), more, baby, shoes, uh oh and cheese. He has also used ASL to sign milk, shark, thank you, delicious, where and cookie. 

Guess what word he hasn't said?

Try as I might, I have not been able to get my boy to say "mama". Not on purpose anyway, and not directed towards me. I knew he could say it, but it every time I would try to coax it out of him I was met with a sly little grin and a twinkle in his eye. 

This week on the cusp of turning 18 months old, he's finally started to say "mama" regularly, with intention, and directed towards me. It's so nice to finally hear it and he says it in such a sweet way.

For a little while, I was worried about his speech development, and a trip to the ear nose and throat doctor gave me even more pause. He failed his hearing test, and after months of successive ear infections, we knew what was coming. Like his brothers before him, Max had to get eustatian tubes; little plastic donut rings inserted into the ear drum to help keep fluid from backing up. As a bonus, he even had his adenoid removed to help with his snoring at night.  

Did Max's sudden pick-up in speech coincide with his newly opened-up ear drums? Maybe. Or maybe it was just time for him developmentally to start speaking more. Or maybe he's some kind of comedic baby super genius that knew it would be funny to withhold saying mama as long as he could. 

Either way, I'm glad he's finally saying mama. As for this time next year, when I won't be able to get him to stop calling for me every 5 minutes ... well, that's going to be another story. 

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