Mini First Words

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Cat, our,em, cat related cardboard box.

Please excuse his appearance-he has been a very popular addition to Mini's immense rack of toys (see below) and plays a very important part in her speech and language development.


Rarely does a day go by when he is not hauled out and presented to either Papa or myself with a request to "do the cat."

His main function is to provide a postbox by which Mini can "post" her picture cards after she has given us either the sign or a sound for them. Why a postbox?Turns out small kids LOVE posting things. Maybe because for them, it's the magic of things disappearing or perhaps it's the fact that it's an easy way for them to gain some independence-"See that card Mum, well I'm going to make it VANISH!!!"Who knows why?

We do know that Mini loves it and it's one of our most successful "teaching" games. She now has about 30 cards like these ones on the left. There are also some actual photos of items like hats, phones, dolls so she can relate to real life items, not just cartoon ones. She will give either a sign or a sound-"ca" for car, an "oink" for the pig but she has never given us the correct sound for an item. Until now. I was showing her the card for baby/dolly, when suddenly the perfectly formed word "baby" spilled forth from her lips. It was such a startling sound-for a split second I was like "who said that?" It's not Mini's first spoken word but it is the first double syllable word we've heard her say(she still tends to call me "mamamama" rather than "mama") and it was like magic. Here's a short clip of her giving the sign and saying the word. I am one proud mamamama.

I'm linking up today's post with two fab linkys- Small Steps Amazing Achievements over at Ethan's Escapades hosted by the lovely Jane.Check out the other fab first steps here. And Magic Moments hosted by the engaging Jaime at The Oliver's Madhouse. Check out the rest of the magic here.