The one, the only, the BAHHH!

Matthew has suddenly grasped that sounds can be used for communication and he is doing his darnedest to communicate. All done (AHHH DA!), Ready, set, go! (SSSSSEH GA!) and old standbys like hi and Daddy are a part of his repetoire now. But yesterday he learned a word that has him fascinated.

We were at Cameron's soccer practice and Matthew couldn't take his eyes off the round black and white sphere that everyone was so intent upon kicking. "Matthew, that's a ball. Can you say ball?" I said in that rhetorical way we parents do. To my surprise he replied, "BAHHH! BAH!" I showed him the sign for ball and he spent the rest of soccer practice signing ball and repeating over and over "BAHH!" When we got home, he crawled straight to his basket of toys and triumphantly held up a ball. "BAHHH! BAH! BAH!" he shouted. And he kept at it. All. Day. Long.

He seems convinced that he needs to enlighten us all on his new discovery. Can't we see the perfect symmetry of this object? Do we not grasp the multiplicity of uses for this BAH? Licking, gumming, rolling, throwing? We clearly do not have a proper understanding of the BAH or we would never put it down. Here, he tries again, patiently repeating "BAH," holding the fantastical find in one hand and gesturing encouragingly with the other. "Come! See it! It's a BAH!"