I've never quite understood the fascination with the baby’s “first word”. I mean, I understand it’s sort of a milestone, but we all know they will eventually talk, and talk they will, so why the rush and why the does the medical profession have to make it so “quantitative”? She “should “ be babbling by 6 months, she “should” be saying 3 words by one year, she “should” be forming complete sentences before 18 months. SHUT UPPPP! Not you sweetie, talk all you want, because god knows, if you can’t keep up with the baby Jonses, there is something wrong with you and we are going to have to introduce you to Mrs. “Speech Intervention” based on some Pediatricians timeline of when you should be talking back to me. Now, after waiting patiently for her to utter her first “real” word, I realize how silly it is for everyone to be so concerned about A. what that first word is, and B. the exact point on the timeline of her super short life that she actually said it. Sophia has been communicating well since she was a baby. At 10 months she started signing consistently and our communication improved, thanks to Aunt Roberta I think, or maybe it was some deaf child she met down the beach. Regardless, at 13 months, she was signing regularly and had begun to use some “pseudo” words consistently , but nothing of any substance. And by “pseudo” I mean, dada and eventually mama; yes dada was first and I have the video to prove it, but I digress because it really isn’t important in the grand scheme of things (except to mama). I also realized that I'm not sure when exactly she started pseudo talking, it definitely wasn't a sudden thing, she just started making sounds and “we”(some of us), hopeful that she would yet again fall into that absolute timeline, started interpreting mumbo jumbo into actual words. My wife would say, did you hear that? She said “…” and I would say “yes, I heard it”, when in reality, I was thinking “WTF, she was babbling that crap at 6 months, don’t put words in her mouth, no pun intended”. Look, in all honesty, it has been a gradual process, with lots of starts and stops along the way. That said, I’m going to update a list of Sophia’s “pseudo words" - some that she uses often, others that she has only blurted out a couple of times. I say pseudo, because they don’t really count per Marion Webster.

Mama (mostly combined with the sign for "more" when she wants something, but used other times as well)
Dada (used like "mama" but when talking directly to dada) hehe :0)
uh oh (her favorite for a bit, taught by mom mom)
pop pop (mom mom swear she says it, I’ve yet to hear it, sorry dad)

Animal noises (many of these have been around longer than most of the words):
woof woof (sounds more life "fff, fff" - she loves the "f" sound!) Let’s hope that unlike my neighbor Annie, she doesn’t eventually love the f-bomb.
mmmmmoo (cow) ok, I am embellishing a bit with the “o” at the end, it’s basically mmmmm. I’m not sure whether she is trying to say moo or she loves her milk so much she sees a cow and goes mmmmmmmm.
baaa (sheep)

Words she has said once or twice (like an UFO sighting):
Pop pop (from mom mom)
Ni ni (night night)
Buh bi (bye bye)
Doggie (From lala)
Huh? (as in ehhh?more like grunting ehhh"? and nails on a chalkboard)

Besides these few, practically indistinguishable words (to me anyway), she talks in her own language constantly. Our house and car is now filled with chatter, and I can honestly say I’m not looking forward to the day when I have to provide answers to the questions she will eventually form from all of this finger pointing followed by huh? (ehhh?-see above words). She definitely has lots to say and it is so fun to hear some of it, but I’ll be damned if I can understand one pseudo word of it. Although, I’ll admit I am getting quite proficient at hearing certain words that she is trying to communicate that are quite distinguishable from the babble, yet completely indistinguishable to anyone other than a father trying so hard to meet a pediatricians goals! 3 words by 1 year dammit or your child will ride the short bus!
That all changed tonight. You see, regardless of what baby books you read, what your doctor’s timeline outlines, what your friends and family tell you your child “should” be doing/saying at some ‘exact” point in the measured monthly age of 6, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24 months, or how hard I worked to have her first “real” distinguishable word be “beer”, Sophia clearly uttered her first word this evening. Not only did she say it clearly and with intention, she repeated it for me when I asked a second time what she wanted, and repeated it again when I brought my wife into the room to "officially" verify. Her first word?

IPAD. I kid you not.