Axel's a loudmouth. He lets out loud ah-gaas in the middle of restaurants, talks to himself through car rides, and squawks at his toys when they're delighting or aggravating him. His stream of chatter has gotten me thinking about first words. The early talker's vocab is filled with words about his or her world, like mamma and sleepy and kitty and poopy and bye bye and no. There's a good chance Axel will start off with these words, too, since a typical day goes something like this:
"Hey, Axel. Good morning Mr. Peanut Butter Cup. Let's change your diaper! Do you want me to change your diaper? It's poopy. That is a lot of poop. How can someone so little make so much poop? Are you hungry? Do you want to eat? Let's eat! I'm hungry. No, you can't have mamma's necklace. Sorry, Mr. Crazy Head. No, you can't have mamma's cellphone. Cameras are shiny and pretty but they don't go in mouths. Look! Look at the kitty! Are you watching the kitty? Do you like little Miss Kitty? Say bye bye to the kitty!"
I'm going to stop now, before your brain turns to mush. It's interesting to a five and a half month old, but it's certainly not scintillating conversation about new restaurants or world affairs. Why did everything gain a title once I had a child? It's Mr. this and Miss that. I also throw "head" and "pants" on the end of things, so Axel becomes Mr. Baby Head, or Mr. Cranky Pants, as though he was just a floating head of glee or a pair of fussy, body-less pants.
It makes sense that first words are the words that babies hear the most, the ones that are connected to their world. I know there's research about the sounds that develop first, and I think I've read that "d"s come sooner than "m"s. But can we get Axel to have a few SAT words, or moderately high Scrabble-value words, in the first round of language? Can we throw something other than rudimentary commands, food-related words, or animals in the mix?
One or two syllables - especially two syllable words that end in "y" or have repeat consentents, like doggy or daddy - seem to be the first words that come. Axel's loving the letter g right now, especially when preceeded by a vowel. So, for less traditional baby words, that could mean agate, agape, or gaggle, or googly. I'm partial to flapjack myself, though it doesn't fit any of those rules - and Axel seems to be, too, since he gets giddy and giggles (ooh! more g words) when I say it to him. That might be because of my enthusiasm, not the particular combination of sounds. Maybe we can get flapjack to be in there among the first half-dozen words, if we repeat it often enough, frequent diners, and break out the griddle to make pancakes a couple times a week.
Hey, Mr. Baby Head, do you want some blueberry flapjacks?
