Mazzy's first word was "HI". She practically exited the womb shouting friendly greetings to the nurses. Her second word was "BOO". "BOO" is what she calls her blankie— short for peek-a-boo. Clever, right? But it's her third word that is her favorite. Her third word has become her word for the sun, the moon and all the stars inbetween. Her third word is none other than "DA-DA".
Saying "DA-DA" before "MA-MA" is supposedly par for the course. Every parenting book says that babies have an easier time pronouncing the "DA" sound than the "MA" sound. As a result, babies usually say "DA-DA" first having nothing to do with who they are addressing.
Well, that might be true for OTHER BABIES, but it's pretty clear Mazzy knows exactly to whom she is referring.
When she wakes up in the morning, even though I am usually Responder #1, the first words out of her mouth are— "DA-DA!" No, she is not calling me "DA-DA" by mistake. Her tone is not "Nice to see you". It is more like "Take me to your leader!" Plus, she accompanies her demand with a finger pointed straight for our bedroom. As soon as she catches the first glimpse of my husband (still in bed), her tone switches from demanding to triumphant. "DA-DA!!!"
Say MA-MA.
DA-DA!
Say MA-MA.
DA-DA!
Who am I?
Nothing.
Mazzy then informed me (in so many words) that she would not have the bandwidth to focus on "MA-MA", until she had perfected "DA-DA" into the more proper form of "DA-DEE". And then once she got it down, she began her favorite new pastime— saying it in quick succession. Mike will pour a bowl of cereal— "DA-DEE! DA-DEE! DA-DEE!" He'll sort the mail. "DA-DEE! DA-DEE! DA-DEE!" He'll put his coat in the closet. "DA-DEE! DA-DEE! DA-DEE!" Like he is her favorite sport's team and his completion of mundane household tasks relies on her cheerleading, support, and extreme fan dedication.
But "MA-MA" had to be her next order of business, right?
Wrong.
Next came "BA-BA" (bottle) and "NAH-NAH-NAH" (banana).
Say MA-MA.
Soon after— UH-OH, NO-NO and YUM all became part of her repertoire.
Say MA-MA.
Followed by BALL, BOOK, BYE-BYE and (don't judge me) iPAD.
iPAD is particularly disheartening.
The other night she said "NIGHT-NIGHT" before she went to bed. And she has begun saying the word "APPLE" so perfectly that I wonder if she is getting diction coaching while everybody else is sleeping. Plus she's been working hard on shoes (SSHHS), duck (UCK) and remote (MO).
Say MA-MA.
Sometimes, I think I have said MA-MA so much, it doesn't even register with her. Maybe she equates the word on the same level as the dishwasher running or listening to a white noise machine.
Say MA-MA.
Silence.
She's now at the point where she has begun to string words together. She'll say "HI BAY-BEE" when she sees herself in the mirror. "I Love You" is "I LA LA". Don't even get me started on "HI DA-DEE!" and "BYE-BYE DA-DEE!" It is heartbreaking.
But she's 13 months now, I tell myself. So she's got to come around soon…
Say MA-MA, I repeat.
NA-DA.
My son did things differently. He said mama before he said dada. He rolled from back to front long before rolling from front to back. We skipped baby food because he HATED it and went right to table foods. Babies are so weird, they do everything differently and just when you think you have them figured out they throw you another curveball. I also think it’s a boy-girl thing. Landon prefers me when he falls down and hurts himself over daddy but I know when I was little I always wanted my dad for comfort. I imagine my daughter will be the same.
this is kharmic payback for brainwashing your sister into saying, “Ilana” before she called your mother, “Mama”.
Okay so while that really sucks, this post was funny as hell. lol
Maybe you’re really lucky and she’s going through her teenage rebellion against you now, well before boys and booze come into the picture, and when she’s 15 you’ll be her best friend in the world and she’ll call her “mama” for everything!
Or maybe she’s just f*cking with you. She’s a smart cookie, that Mazzy. 🙂
I’ve heard that boys look at their mamas with a love that you will never ever get from a daughter. Sigh. I take comfort in knowing that at some point I’ll be able to blackmail her for her affection with promises of shopping.
I can’t believe you remember that. I knew that was going to come back and bite me in the ass. Also- like the fancy spelling of karmic. Is that British or something?
Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Everyone else will be complaining about sex and drugs and staying out past curfew and I’ll say— “Oh, that? We got past all that stuff by the time she was three!”
If it makes you feel any better, not only is J not saying Mama, his ONLY word is DaDa (and he’s older than Mazzy!) I console myself with the fact that he may SAY DaDa, and spend his whole day with DaDa, but *I* will always hold the trump card of being able to say “but I carried you for 9 months!”. Wait, that doesn’t seem like a fair trade…
C is 15 months old and all he says is bebe. Applied to everything.
Not the sharpest tool, but definitely the cutest!
(since when is this form not auto-filled?? WHY does your commenting system hate me so!?!?)
Sometimes I think the reason that she is so excited about Daddy is because she doesn’t see him as much. But now that we are both back at work, it’s still the same.
I don’t know! I don’t know! I hope you keep commenting regardless:)
Hee hee. I think that they do that to peeve us off. They know how to say it. They’re just reserving the right to use it for that one moment when you’re about ready to pull your hair out after she got into a tub of butt paste and plastered it all over the walls and she’ll look up at you with those puppy dog eyes and say
“Ma Ma”
It totally works that way.
Aaaah— you are a wise one. That never even occurred to me. I hope she’s not saving it for something she has specifically planned. Like flushing my engagement ring down the toilet. Cause I might just melt anyway…
don’t change the subject.
I think this video from when Rebecca was 8 months old speaks for itself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDhb-rs3atg
That is quite a vocabulary that Mazzy has though! Rebecca is 3 days younger and we are still getting random babblings and something SLOWLY starting to resemble pointing. I know by the time she’s 3 I’ll be thinking “Does this kid ever shut up?” and “Where did she learn THAT word… Oh Crud…”?
Hilarious. I have tons of video illustrating Mazzy’s propensity for Daddy but I haven’t had the time to edit something together. I’ll have to try to do it for next week.
I think there is a whole parenting theory about babies still thinking the mother is, in essence, a part of them, so there is less of a need to have a name for Mommy. (Because you are like an appendage, or, as I thought of my sons, they are like barnacles, or mistletoe or something else vaguely parasitic.) In any case, my kids said Da-da and a ton of other words before Ma Ma – Colin called Aidan “Day” before he said it. Clearly, I hardly remember it at all, or bear any resentment.
Well you know that quote “A son is a son till he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life” so eventually I’m gonna have to share Landon too. Eeeek!
You’re not alone. My daughter said Ma-Ma first, but now hasn’t said it in months. She wakes up in the mornings and the first things she does is scream “DA-DA” at the top of her lungs. I’ve been trying soooooo hard to teach her Ma-Ma again 😉
Not to worry– even though I am still #1 Responder, my 3 year old talks now all about how she “misses Daddy soooo much” when he’s at work. It must be an subconcious Daddy’s Little Girl thing.
And it could be worse– Amanda’s second or third word was the F-curse. Took a while to get rid of that one! 🙂
My 13 month old has been saying hi and kitty for months. Kitty is by far the love of her life and we have discovered that her super power is the ability to find a cat in absolutely every situation she is in and every book with pictures. No mama, no dada. She has since added bye, boof! (for dog), baby, please, she has said Peanut (our dog’s name). I feel your pain.
My son had a speech problem. Instead of saying da-da he would call him ga-ga. It caught on and we all ended up calling him ga-ga for a year. Yeah, it was pretty awesome. Drove him crazy!
It’s good that you have kept a clear head about this:) I like the thought of the appendage thing but I wonder if this still holds true if the mother is working…
HA! If only she screamed Da-Da before I got to her room and it gave me the perfect excuse to roll over and go back to sleep! That would make it all worth it.
Mazzy is constantly going into our bedroom during the day looking for Da-Dee. It’s pathetic. She thinks he lives in the master bathroom.
That is some superpower. Do you guys at least have a cat? I wonder how we can put her power to good use. Mazzy can find very tiny things from very far away buried in the carpet. Together they can fight crime!
At least you and your husband can suffer together.
Husbands are always lukewarm over nicknames unless they are self-created. I say, keep it going for the rest of his life. Introduce him as Ga-Ga at parties, sign your Christmas cards like that…it’ll be awesome!
hysterical! i totally agree with Erin’s comment–you do not signify an “other” that needs a name in her world. For my son, he was really late on identifying two things: me and himself. We were just “it”. A given. And yes, I still believe it even if you are working! You’re her one and only mom, no matter how your schedule may have changed 🙂
If she has the propensity for words that you do, I am sure that at some point, probably not the so distant future, that you will hope she tones it down a bit.
Of course, I could just leave it at that, and make a quick exit, but that would be too easy. I saw that @dirtygarnet might stop by, and there is no way I’m letting that longwinded Editor get the better of me. So, I guess we have to pull up a chair, and listen to my story about kids….
I was born a poor orphaned ferret….
Thank Goodness, my masseuse is beckoning…have to go. She’s serving me icecream and salad today, and wearing that French Maid’s outfit. Don’t wanna miss that.
http://twitter.com/samuel_clemons
Wise words from a ferret. If you are still orphaned and looking for a home, please let me know. We will welcome you with open arms. Especially if you bring along your masseuse.
Ok- I’m taking it:) I’m gonna tell her father that Mazzy saying Da-Dee means he is a second class citizen. Parenting competition back on!
great site. you are very talented and funny.. of course it helps that mazzy is so adorable…
will keep spreading the word about mommy shorts…
Nah that’s a misspelling. We Britons invented spelling gradually starting around 1600, removing letters from words until it arrived at what it is today. This has been the saviour of teaching professionals the world over to now happily correct people.
Wait, your baby could be trying to speak Old English!
Maybe if I worked on MUM instead of MA-MA, I’d get some better results.
Mazzy also loves her canine cousin Roxy and I felt especially proud when I taught her to say “Hi Doggie”
Saying “da-da” first is the karmic pay-off for the fact that later in life, after dad teaches, coaches, plays, throws, tackles and endures many a bruised kidney, the future sports star will, in his first TV interview say, “Thank you, Mom!”
That would have been SO much better if I’d actually made up that joke.
Alas, it is stolen.
My 13-month old is MISTER Daddy’s Boy: clinging to his leg, crying when he gets up from the table, sobbing when he leaves for work. When I leave for work, half the time my nanny can barely get baby to look up from his toys and wave bye-bye 😉 So sad. But I’ve had baby to myself all weekend and now he’s captain of Team Mommy! And saying Mamamamamama all day …He just needed some immersion therapy.
My daughter chose to have children without a husband, no biggy, and they are wonderful children, some days demons but adorable. My little grand daughter who is now three still calls her mom daddy. And she has an older brother who is four and attending school who calls his mom mom, but no way can we get my grand daughter to call her mom mom.
I feel your pain, I fell my daughter’s pain, who says it doesn’t bother her, and I am like really, I would be crushed. Especially when there isn’t a daddy in the house, what is with that?
Thank you! It was so nice to meet you the other night. I hope to see you again soon!
As long as you are not stealing my stuff, I am fine with a little thievery!
And actually, if you DID steal my stuff, I probably be WAY flattered.
It’s “Hi Duh”. Okay? She hasn’t mastered it yet. I’ve still got hope.
So funny because Mike was away all of last week, and by the end, I think I actually almost got something going. We’ll see if it materializes into a video…
Insulting! I wonder what that’s about. You should have your daughter pose the question to Dr. B— our resident child psychologist. She answers reader questions every Wednesday.
just found mommyshorts – it’s great! – & now i’m playing catch up on old posts…
our 15 month old son refuses to say mama. i used to get upset. but he now calls dogs “da da” too. i’d rather be calles nothing than be called a dog.
For the longest time, “dadda” was said with the sweetest, most loving tone of voice imaginable. “Mumma” was only ever said through screams, sobs, tears and/or anger. There were days when I wished she never knew my “name”!
Yes to the “say Ma Ma”… “Da da!”
I actually just posted a video on FB of my son doing this with a mischievous grin.
My son said mama first but I had to wait over a year to hear it!