The Boy Speaks

Today Luke took an important step in his ongoing quest to successfully achieve, as his educator mother might say, viable primary language acquisition. It was a surprise, and likely accidental, but the fact remains that at approximately 7:49 PM, Luke pulled away from his mother, looked at me, his father, and said, quoth: "Da." It wasn't strictly speaking a word, but it certainly seemed like the pronounced syllable had meaning since it was followed by a toothless, somewhat droolly smile and a sustained look in my direction. It may have been because he associates me with play time and still had some energy that night. It may be that Luke, being born with advanced cognitive abilities, superior neuro-sensory skills, and a young intelligence best described as "phenominal," easily associated my appearance in the room with my name as far as his infant tongue could pronounce it. It may also be that after months of never sleeping well and yearning for the day when the boy can communicate something without a hearty wail, we projected our hopes too far at the end of a busy day and misheard standard baby babble. In any case, we'll be spending our days (and nights) listening attentively for signs of his next potential word or syllable. Further bulletins as events warrant...