"Mama"

I think this is Joaquin's official first word!

Since we started the treatment program, I've been working on different sounds and songs to help stimulate the baby's brain. We also do oral/facial massage and encourage chewing and blowing raspberries and other mouth movements and sounds. Joaquin has always been fascinated by this and for about 2 weeks I've been attempting to teach him "mama", repeating it over and over to him. He loves to watch my mouth move when I say it and you can see his wheels turning.

Well, a couple days ago around his 6 month birthday, he decided to say "mamamamamamamama" with exaggerated mouth movements that were completely new for him. SOOOOOOO exciting! Then, just the other morning about 4 am, he woke up (in our bed) and said out of the blue and very clearly "mama" and then proceeded to babble on about other things. I think we may have even heard some "babababas" and some "papapapapas" as he experimented with his new vocabulary for about 20 minutes before falling back asleep. Both Hector and I were amused by his early morning conversation and couldn't help but laugh. I know this is all very pre-speech stuff but we are thrilled nonetheless. We'll try to catch it on film to share with all of you. It's the cutest thing ever and of course "Mama" is very proud. Now we'll start working on "Papa" and "Nana" to keep everyone happy :).