"Cat"

Yep, we're calling it her first word! On Saturday I was laying in bed with Audrey getting ready for nap time. Well, I was ready for nap time; she was just crawling all over me laughing and pulling my hair. Anyways, Meeshy came into the room and hopped on the bed next to me and cuddled up waiting for me to pet her. I took this opportunity, as always, to show Audrey how to "pat gently". She struggles with this. Her excitement takes over and her pat usually turns into full on punch and the animals run away. This time was different, though. She was really paying attention, looking at the cat, then at me, and watching how I petted her. Audrey was able to actually pet Meesh without pulling any hair or scaring her away! As I petted the cat, I kept telling Audrey "cat, cat" and encouraging her to try to say the word. After a few times, she raised her eyebrows and put a sneaky smile on her face and said, "Ca". I was so excited I almost jumped off the bed! She says other words, including "mama" and "dada", but they're usually more like "mamamama" and "dadadada" and sometimes she'll say them while looking at the right person, but this time was different. This "Ca" was very intentional, she was actually following my words and made a real attempt to repeat what I was saying. I was able to get her to do it a couple more times, and then she got bored and started hitting the cat, and that was the end of that.

Josh says it isn't official until he hears it, so my mission this week is to get her to do it again. The hard part is going to get her to be that focused again, this girl is usually all over the place!