Vocab

Logan has an expanding vocabulary of words as you'd expect a 15-month-old to have. They're not very distinct for the most part ("duck" and "truck" sound an awful lot alike) but in the context of the situation that he's using the word, you can usually tell what he's trying to say. 

It's hard to say what his first word actually was, since he's been saying many of these things for several months now, and I don't know that I could say when he transitioned from babbling to actually using a particular word intentionally.

Regardless, he's pretty vocal when he's in his comfort zone. When we went to the beach on Sunday, he was pretty tight-lipped, but when he's in his bath every night, it's talk, talk, talk the whole time.

However, the word he very conspiciously DOESN'T say: "Mama."

He will say Nana, Dada, Jedi and Ripley (although this is less than the other three.) Hilariously, one day, I was yelling at Ripley (which is a pretty common thing around our house) and Logan mimicked me, using his "monster" voice to say his version of Ripley.

He will cheerfully address my mom and Mike, and he loves saying Jedi. When you ask him where anybody in the house is (including me) he will turn his head until he finds that person, so it's quite clear that he knows everybody's name. He knows that I'm Mommy.

He doesn't say Mama, though.

He has said it. I know he CAN say it, but he rarely does.

It's not hurtful, exactly. I mean, it isn't like he's doing it on purpose to break my heart or anything. I think it's more bewildering to me. Clearly he spends more waking time with my mom during the week than with either Mike or myself, so Nana is always going to be at the top of the list.

But when it comes to time spent with him for second place, since I get up with Logan 6 out of 7 days and I get home a full hour before Mike does, I spend more time with Logan than Mike does (for now.) So, if it were sheer numbers, I would think that I'd still get second billing for naming.

But, nope. I'm fifth. Below the dog.

I can't figure out why. Mike insists it's because "Mama" is more difficult to say, which is just silly. "Mama" is such a common thread in the name for mother in so many cultures precisely BECAUSE it's so easy to say. It's some of the first sounds any baby anywhere will produce.

So, I don't get it. As he gets more and more language skills, I'm obviously hoping that this changes, but if it doesn't, at least at some point I'll be able to ask him why he never says my name.

This morning, I was changing his diaper and I said, "Can you say 'Mama?'"

Logan looked at me and said, "Dada!"

Cue the wah-wah music.