Tuco’s First Word and Other Things

Tuco has been uttering consonant sounds for a few months. He’s made all kinds of sweet sounds like babababa and der der der der der. We knew all this must be leading up to Tuco gaining the verbal skills to say actual words. He has said things like dadadada and mamamama, but those haven’t counted as words before because it was clear he was just jabbering and not really referring to either of his parents. But on February 15, 2012 he meant what he said. That’s right, Tuco said his first word and it was–

Dada.

Tuco’s dad came into the room, Tuco stopped what he was doing, and looked at his dad straight in the eyes.  Then in a tone that had a “Oh hi, old chum!” ring to it, Tuco said it. It was clear that he knew what he was saying. He did it again the next day too.

Hopefully the next official word will be “Mama.”

In other Tuco news, he is pulling himself up all over the place. If there is something near him that is a foot or more off the ground, he will try to use it to pull himself up. When Tuco wakes up from a nap, I no longer find a little tiny helpless baby laying there crying. I now find a little boy having a great time standing up and talking nonsense. When he was born, it seemed like this scenario was so far away.  I think I will always be nostalgic for his baby phase, but I am truly enjoying these new phases.

If you want to know a secret, my days are spent trying to entertain Tuco enough so that he will be ready for a nap when the time comes. As soon as I put him in his crib and close the door, I feel a sense of relief. Time to relax a little. But then, about 20 minutes later, I miss the little guy.  He’s just so much dang fun right now that it’s easy for me to forget how much hard work it is wrangling him from getting into trouble.  I’m not saying every day is a super happy fun day–I have my days of feeling stressed out and over tired. There are times when I am sick and tired of him crawling over to the heat vent to stick his fingers in it. And sometimes I wish he could just chill out a little and sit quietly while I send an email or write a blog post.  But mostly, I am happy to enjoy this time with him because I know he’ll be graduating high school before I know it.

Advertisement