MaMa

In the last couple of weeks, all the sudden one day Ashley started saying "MaMa"!! She would mumble "ma, ma, ma" out of blue while she's playing. Sometimes, it seems she knows what she's saying, but most of the time she just mumbles "mama" subconsciously. Most obviously is that when she fusses, she likes to cry out loud "maaa,mama" as if she's asking for Mom. I can't resist to pick her up and hold her every time. I really don't think Ashley knows what Mama means yet, but it still makes me very happy.

I wonder sometimes where the origin of the words, Mama & BaBa, comes from. In most of the languages, Mom always sounds similar to "ma", "mom", "mum", and Dad always sounds similar to "Ba", "Da", "Pa". It's amazing how similar they are even though the languages are completely different. Now since Ashley starts saying "MaMa" & "BaBa", I do think that it is very possible that human just pick those two words for Mom and Dad based on babies' first couple of words. "Ma" and "Ba" are definitely one of the first frequent sounds babies speak in all languages.

Baby's brain is like a recorder that stores all sort of wonderful sounds and words. I had tried repeatedly to teach Ashley "Mama, mama" before, she never responded back. But her little recorder imprints "Mama" somewhere in her memory. When she is ready, she can pronounce it precisely just like the play back of a record . I should start repeating other phases such as "hi", "bye", to her. Who knows, one day she might surprise us all again and again.