First Words

The other day my oldest asked me to remind him what his first word was. This comes up from time to time because both boys have kind of fun and unusual versions of this milestone.

Wait – a story about the boys when they were babies that I haven’t told here yet? Oh, let’s fix THAT!

Oldest was a real oddity – he didn’t have a first word, he had a first SENTENCE. And that’s why it probably seared itself into my memory banks so deeply. I don’t remember the exact timing of this as far as how old he was. But I do know for sure that his dad and I were walking up the stairwell in the condo complex we lived in at the time. I was carrying him and he was doing his usual chattering. Let me tell you that this kid YAMMERED. Once he found his voice at a few months old, he never, ever stopped using it! So I was rather accustomed to a babbling brook streaming out of his mouth when he was awake. But, just as we got to the landing outside the door of our unit, while his dad put the key in the door, Nick was quiet for enough time that it made an impact. Then he looked up at the ceiling in the stairwell, pointed up and said “See light?”

We both stopped because it was such a clear question to us! I looked up and then back at him and responded “What did you say buddy? See what?” and he said again, clear as a bell and with the proper questioning inflection “See light?!”

How cool is that?

Youngest is more unusual since he basically showed his sport loving stripes from the start. I know it had to be in the spring/summer of ’98  – he turned 2 in August 98. I had always been a huge Dodger fan growing up and a Mike Piazza fan specifically. (as soon as the Dodgers traded Piazza, I switched to full Padres loyalty and had been warming up to them for quite a bit before then. Piazza extended my Dodger fan time when he came up).

Anyway, I watched every Dodger game on TV that we could see in San Diego. And I had a routine. Piazza would come up to the plate and I would say “Let’s go Mi-KEY” with an emphasis on that last syllable. Alex had shown an interest in the games when they were on and was always around me while I watched. I’d narrate a bit to him, trying to simplify my cheering and my own version of color commentary. WHEN he would get a hit, especially a home run, I would let out a “Way to go Mi-KEY!” and get Alex to clap along with me.

Sure enough, one of those days (I do remember it was a day game so must have been a Sunday afternoon game), after I had let loose with my customary cheer of encouragement when Piazza got to the batters box, I hear a little voice say “Mi-KEY!”

I looked at Alex wide eyed and then went up closer to the TV (old ass console thing from somewhere back in the early 1970s…ok, maybe late 1970s since it WAS color..) and I pointed to the Piazza on the screen and said “Alex, who is this?”

“Mi-KEY!”

Oh yeah….brainwashing complete 🙂

So – any other good stories out there of kid’s first words? I’d love to hear them!

As a bonus for reading all the way through, here’s a fresh picture of said sports obsessed child from his rugby game this past weekend: