First words?

For the last couple of weeks or so, Mommy B and I have been trying to coach (coax might be a better word) Alli into saying her first word. We've tried "Mama" and "Dada" and even thrown a few "Doggy"s in there too, but all we've gotten out of her is some high-pitched happy yells and some grunts. However, this weekend we noticed that she's become quite vocal when she's eating.

Mommy B had Friday off so Alli spent 3 days in a row at home. Each day (home or at daycare), she typically eats 3 "meals" of baby food - a fruit with some rice cereal before her morning nap, a fruit and vegetable around noon or so, then a vegetable in the evening. Of course, we try to switch things up as much as we can so she doesn't get bored with the same foods, and as Mommy B posted once upon a time, we haven't come across anything she doesn't like.

During Alli's "dinner" on Saturday, she was especially vocal. I don't know if she was more hungry than normal or just all-around-excited, but she got pretty antsy when we first plopped her down in her high chair. After the first spoon full of whatever it was went into her mouth, she promptly closed her mouth around it and said "MMMMM!"

This wasn't your typical grunt or moan - you could hear the voice inflection up then down like an adult says when they describe a particularly tasty food. Mommy B and I simultaneously looked at each other and said "Did she just say 'yumm'? I think she did. Does that qualify as her first word?"

She went on to repeat this "talking" for the rest of the meal. As things went on, she kind of dropped the inflection and it just became more of a standard "mmmm" as she ate each bite. But my goodness, I've never seen an infant get so excited to eat. You'd think we were starving her or something... but I think it's just because she really likes the variety of baby food we've been buying/making her. I can tell she's gaining weight, and I'm happy we haven't had to restrict the type of food we give her because she's too "picky".

Sunday rolled around and it felt like she ate all day. In the afternoon she polished off a container of some fruit mixture, then half a jar of strained peas, then almost 4 ounces from a bottle. I couldn't tell where the hell she was putting it all - but I'm glad to see that she's eating well. And judging by her diapers recently... everything is making it's way through without any issues. As if I needed any more proof that she was mine - she's having no trouble with things going in or coming out.