Gaga over GooGoo

kuzhalinidu yAzhinidu enbaam makkaL

Mazhalaich choR kELAdavar.

                                                              - ThirukkuraL. Chapter 7, couplet 6.

Flute is sweet, lute is sweet, they say alone

Who haven't heard the prattle of their children own.

It seems so cliched to say that her aaahh(s) and ooooh(s) sound like music to me, but thats how it is. 

There used to be nights when she would cry non-stop, my arms and legs would give up on me and just when I would be at the very threshold of my boiling point she would put her head down on my shoulder and let out a small sweet sigh of relief or a tired cry of pain and all my anger,exhaustion and exasperation would melt away in a second and I would take up soothing her all charged up like a new woman. Such is the sweetness, power and depth in a child's voice. Now she says amma, appa, aththai, tha-tha, mama, apple, hello, bye ….and a range of other cute noises that very closely resemble actual words. So much so that we are constantly extrapolating them to be real responses to our lines. 

Baby smiles are the best mode of communication ever! Not considering smiles in deep sleep and happy lip curves during farting, V's first real smile appeared when she was 1.5 months old in mid november. In early december one day (ok..ok..i accept, i do know the exact date .. it was dec 4) my MIL was singing and dancing in front of her when in one sudden magical moment, V simply burst out laughing. And we never missed a chance to make her laugh out loud ever since. Figuring out what would make her laugh is one of favorite games any day :) And coming to music, all babies respond better to music than anything else. As a matter of fact, V sang (actually, she used to hum) before she could say anything. And I loved the fact that I didn't have to sing only in the bathroom anymore as I had an attentive audience in V. Singing and talking loudly to babies works wonders for their development (It definitely helps if mom's chatterbox DNA is already in place) 

And here is a weird thing that happened a couple of days back. My sis-in-law has a 4 month old and he has just begun making sweet noises. He usually responds well to my MIL's high pitched voice especially close to bedtime. My MIL had to be away for a 3 days and he simply stopped talking during the time she was gone. Despite many attempts from his mom and me, he refused to respond the way he did to my MIL's voice. He was missing his speech partner. No matter what we sang, spoke or did, he wanted to talk to his granny and nobody else. We must try and sing/talk during feeding, bathing, changing (i know its exhausting but totally worth it) to help babies recognize us and develop interest in spoken communication. Babies never learn anything with respect to speech from watching TV or listening to radio. To them everything is noise unless they see lip and facial movements. Reading, bedtime stories, family playtime, instructive games ...there are so many more activities that will encourage a baby's talking and listening habits.  I guess I will stop yapping at this point and let you moms and dads get going with the talking. Take care all of you :) Good day!  

Here is the pic of the day inspired by the mother of all things loud and weird - Baby Gaga.

Cant stop (s)talking .... Paparazzi

Pic taken on: Jul 8 2011




And here is something for you to watch and smile for the rest of the day...

The chatterbox and the telephone.