"Up."

About a week ago my little sunshine, my daughter, started saying her first word which she understood the meaning of. She's been saying random words here and there, but last week she said something and meant it.

We've been teaching her sign language, and since Christmas she's been actively signing "Please", "Eat", "More", "Drink", "Wash hands", "Bath", "Shoes", "GOOAAL!!" (She raises both hands in the air and smiles) and recently "Telephone". She's combining all these signs together now in two and three-word hybrid sentences, and gets a lot of satisfaction because we're happy she's signing and she's happy she's getting what she wants. We're also more inclined to give her what she wants to encourage her if she asks nicely with a "Please". Mostly when she wants something she points and indicates "please" by rubbing her tummy (baby sign-language). We always repeat the word for what she wants so she'll learn it, and then last week...

She put her arms up to get lifted up and she said "Up". The equal-second-shortest word in the English language was her first! Since then she's followed that up with "hug" and a few other words she's beginning to wrap her tongue around.

It's amazing to see her own satisfaction at learning something new. Obviously we're excited for her as well, which encourages her in her new pursuit of conversation. It's exciting times for all concerned!