I’m pretty sure my 8-month-old has said his first word. It was “Da-da.” And I think the other night he was trying to say “kitty,” but it came out more like, “gee-gee.”

So, after carrying him for 9 LONG months (the last 4 of which I had gestational diabetes), 14 hours of back labor, 2 hours of pushing and a birth that left my vagina a ghastly, scarred mess, 8 subsequent months of making sure he was fed, clean, and happy, I’m still of no consequence to the boy.

No sign of “Mama” in sight. Not even anything close.

While I’m thrilled that he’s making his first real attempts at language and I understand that the “d” sound is easier to make than the “m” sound, I’m still a little crushed that I rank lower than the cat.

What was your child’s first word? Anyone want to share some language-related anecdotes?

ball - people came WAY after ball for my kids

Down. Doooowwwn.

This also meant "pick me up." Mostly she just wanted down. The next word was "milk." We were way later.

Mo would "woof" at the dogs and follow them around long before he was consistently calling me Mama.

The Girl's first word was doggy.

Ball. More. Dog. I got.

I'm pretty impressed with "more." It's actually communicating, which is cool. I mean, "ball" was fun, but dude I know that thing is a ball. When he says "more" we're actually having a conversation. It sounds like "mo" and translates loosely to "Dude, let me have some of whatever that stuff is that I'm looking at."

He gets pretty insistent though. "More... More! MORE!!!" It's like, come on kid, give me a second... And no, you cannot have a sip of daddy's wine. Sorry.

With Miles is it was ball. Then came bottle, book, bath, bye and anything else that started with "bu" -- it all sounded the same to outsiders, but my husband and I understood the subtle differences in inflection.

With Eli, it was MINE. Then bubba, which eventually we realized was "brother," though at the time he was usually pointing in the cabinet so we thought he wanted peanut butter.

I was wrong. Duck was first. Her bath towel had a duck on it. Duck meant bath.

paperbagshoes - don't feel bad, it is simply because da da is easier to say. I began my experiment in college as a speech therapy major. One of my professors pointed out that in forming language, the easiest first sound babies to make is the da sound. So it is more to do with our children saying what is easy than saying what matters to them most.

Incidentally, my daughter's first word was also "da da". My son's first word was "Ri Ri" - not an easy thing to say, but clearly his sister was and still is his favorite person in the world.

Raidne's first word was "goggy" (doggy). Wild Thing's first word was "bahbie" (Barbie). Can you tell who has an older sister?

Their parental units were way down the list - after animals, toys, food etc. I was pretty crushed, too PBS.

When Mo was about 9 mo. he would jabber "I did it" over and over again. It was so funny to hear that coming from the back seat of the car. He would sit there playing and saying "I did it I did it I did it I did it..."

To Sadie's point, my daughter said "dada" first, and she didn't have a dad until she was about a year old. So.

I think some variant of "more" came after that, beyond that, I don't know! She had reflux & food allergies; I've successfully forgotten most of her first year. With no regrets. It sucked.

The other thing about first words is that, this early, your kid still thinks you and he are the same person. So why would he need a word for you?

And yet I have to admit that our kid's first word (that we recognized) was Mama. So maybe he was just anxious to be his own person.

N's first word was hot. One week after his first birthday, he pointed to his dad's coffee cup and said 'hot' very clearly. It was like he was waiting until he could do it perfectly before he was going to say anything. He's still like that--a total perfectionist.

A's first word was Nay-Nan (we came waayy later)--and he still follows his brother around like a lost puppy. Then it was 'kit-cat'. He also likes the cats better than us.

Yeah, S's first word was da da, but he calls everything da da: me, the dog, balls, lights, mom, grandma, books... you get the idea.

Brennan's first word took us a while to puzzle out. He started saying 'doo-dee' over and over again. We knew he didn't mean poo, because we'd never used that word for it. Then one day he said it while pointing at the CAT. Then I realized he was trying to say 'Georgie', which is our cat's name.

The Little Miss kept saying 'ben - nen-nen' so we think she was trying to say 'Brennan'.

Alex's first word was "geen" or green. I am a bad mother because mommy amnesia has set in and I don't remember Taylor's first word. I think it may have been dada.

However, my best friend has the best story. Her daughter said "touchdown" before she started saying mama. Way to crush your mommy's feelings into a fine dust there, cheeks. Poor Stefanie.

the tininess' first word was ki! for kitty, and yes she always says it with an exclamation point. S and i call each other by our first names to her- and our names are not easy so i figure that will be a while longer.

My oldest's first word was "go!" Which represented everything. Two dogs were "go gos!" Come here was "go!" I have to pee was "go!" Birds flying overhead were "gos!"

Our boy called both me and the TV remote Da Da.

AJ's was "guck," for truck, but even after that he preferred pointing and grunting to actual words.

We had to kennel our dog Hannah overnight so they could closely monitor her diarrhea (why are dogs so fucking expensive!). He picked up her toy, set it on the couch and said in the saddest voice ever, "Hah-na-nah."

"Jeezuzz Mother, I told you not to put syrup on my pancakes"

No..wait....how the hell are we expected to remember this stuff? I think the first child's word was dog - stupid because we didn't have a dog...and the second one really didn't talk much because the first one did the talking and the third one said "gah" which meant pretty much everything.

Mother of the freaking year over here...

Here's a good one. The Boy had just turned two. My husband and I were having some mundane conversation and I said something like "I didn't know what you were talking about..."

"...Willis!!!" The Boy gleefully chimed in.

So watch those casual references to '70s pop culture. The kids are listening.

I almost choked on my curry, floorpie. That's some funny stuff.

my stepbro's first word was "beeb", cos you can't say "boob" with a permanent grin plastered on your face. when he got around to trying to say is older sister's name, "Melanie", the best he could do was "nang-a-nang".

i was my sister's first word, she called me "ee-ya" for the first five years or so, it was as close to "Olivia" as she could get. also if you shout "olivia" long and drawn out, that last "ee-ya" would be about the point i'd walk in the room.

my baby is still only foaming, no words yet, but i'm certain the first ones will be toy names.

Yes, my babe is eight months too and it's Da-da (for her Dad) and Aw-wa (for Oscar) my mothers dog.
Sniff.