When My Baby Says “Mash” She Ain’t Talking Potatoes

When my first child was born, I went just a bit nuts in books and videos on how to make your baby smarter, feel more loved, sleep better at night, be an expert nurser, etc, etc. I glad I bought them and while I didn’t read any one of them from cover to cover I did crack them open and glean the information I was looking for. As a result I am now the proud parent of 4 very smart, very expensive kids. See smart kids cost more money where I live because public school can’t handle their advancement, and private school makes you pay. But I’m ok with that.

I’m onto my last kid now, and she doesn’t miss a thing. She sees, hears and wants to touch everything. She’s quite convinced she’s just as big as everyone else. Not in height, she’s aware she still has to look up at everyone, but certainly in ability. She started walking earlier than the others and now she’s started to talk too. Now you have to understand that not only do my kids hear only Spanish from me, and English from their dad, but we also teach them sign language from about nine months old. So there is a TON of communication processing going on in those little brains, yet they manage to do it with such ease and grace. We taught her the most useful signs for her, among them being the sign for “more.” When she finally learned how to do it, I could see she wasn’t really happy to have to use her hands when everyone else would just say something.

Finally, she just had it with the whole dog and pony act of her signing, me saying the word and clapping and her feeling just a bit of condescension in the air. We were eating grapes and I was handing her halves, one by one. She started to sign “more,” I got ready to clap and say “¿mas?” She stopped, looked me square in the eyes and said “¿mash?” And I said “¿Mash? ¡Siiii! ¡MAAAAASH!” And I fell in love with her again for probably the tenth time that day.

What was your baby's first word? What made her/him say it? What was your reaction?