Dada. Mama. Dada. Mama.

Adam has been saying "da da da da da" (the sound) since he's been 5.5 months old and first said it in context around 10 months of age (however, he probably said it only 3 times though, in context, before his first birthday).

By 10 months, Adam was saying almost all the consonants/sounds... except for "ma ma ma ma". And then, miraculously, he started saying it. He never said it as a sound, he has always said it in context, directed at me. However, that context was only when he was annoyed with me.

For example:

Mama: "Little Love, you need to stay in your highchair".

Adam: "Ma ma ma ma ma" (in a really upset tone of voice, while trying to get out of the highchair).

I even asked the pediatrician at his 1 yr. appt. if saying "ma ma ma ma ma" (never just "mama") when annoyed "counted" as saying "mama" (for the record, he said it did, since he was saying it to me). However, this was not exactly the sweet little "mama" fantasy that I was having. People told me to be patient... once he started to "really" say "mama", he would (hopefully!) never stop.

Well, that glorious day has come. For the past few weeks, Adam has been "officially" saying "Mama" and "Dada". All. The. Time. And we LOVE it!!!

I remember when Adam first started giving his signature broad smiles, around 2 months of age (see photos in sidebar). Seriously, for six months (at least) I got excited every single time the kid smiled. And he smiled... a lot. I remember Steven getting somewhat annoyed with my exclamations of "Look at Adam smiling" and him saying "He's been smiling for months, Beth". It didn't matter. Heck, to this day I still get excited when I see him smiling. Fortunately, he smiles and laughs all the time with us but not so much with people he doesn't know. If you get a smile out of him (and you're not part of the fam), it's a pretty big deal. Speaking of which, Adam was giving his cousins Jake, Evan, and Zach the BIGGEST smiles at the beach. They really love each other; it's precious.

Anyway..... back to the original subject, which is Adam saying "mama" and "dada". He nows says the words all day long. When he wakes up he'll cry "mama". Whenever he passes our bedroom (and Steven is at work) he'll say "dada" (and get very upset when he sees that Dada is not in the room). When Steven gets home from work, he runs around the room yelling "Dada. Dada. Dada." Tonight, I ran some errands and when I came home, the first thing I heard (when I opened the door from the garage) was "Mama". When I came up, he ran to me and yelled "Mama, Mama, Mama" while hugging me. It truly is the sweetest sound and so worth the wait.

One more cute story... today Adam was sitting with me at the computer and saw the screensaver of his photo, a recent pic. He pointed to the screensaver/photo of himself and said "baby". :)

Photo notes: The photos above were taken last month. Steven especially loves Adam's "I'm a little (Auburn Univ)tiger" T-shirt. Thanks, Zayde!

This photo was taken at the beach with J, Z, and E. Good, good times. :)