Geckos...and first words

Just like most babies, Ezra has been babbling for a long time. He actually makes a variety of interesting noises, some sounding like animals such as monkeys or dolphins. He has been repeating the standard monosyllables dada, mama, nana, etc. for as long as I can remember. And for the last few months, he has been expressing an emphatic "ooooohhh" at everything he sees (especially birds, bugs, and plants when exploring outside). In fact, he seems to have a better eye than us for these things, as often he is saying "ooohh, ooohh, ooohh" and I don't even see the bird in the tree until it flies away.

Although it is fun to hear him say "dada" (by far, the most frequently expressed word) and "mama" (this one is still rare), he doesn't yet say it for us. Instead, he picks up a toy and says "dada" while showing it to us (like he's telling us what it is). He also says "da-deee" (i.e. daddy with emphasis on the last syllable) which is also super cute, but again, he calls most of the things he sees or touches either dada or dadee. Our nanny knows a bit of English, and she kept saying, "no that's not dirty" to Ezra. So finally I asked her why and she said that Ezra was saying "dirty". Well, in her accent, dirty sounds a lot like daddy, but not at all to us (which reminds us why our Bangla sounds "right" to us but not to them!).

So, on to the real point of this post - Ezra has finally said his "real" first word. That is, he finally said a word that is not just a combination of easy sylables he knows and he used it in the right context. I mentioned that we have a lot of bugs now but didn't mention that we also have a lot of geckos. And when I say a lot, I mean there are probably about 20 living in our house (and they are making more - we have seen the tiny babies!). They make a very distinctive (and sometimes quite loud) sound and crawl everywhere, including upside down on the ceiling. They are usually near the light fixtures or in the vents to catch bugs to eat. The Bangla word for gecko is tik-tiki (pronounced: teek-TEE-kee) because the geckos make a sound that sounds like the word for them. When we first arrived in Bangladesh, it was one of the first Bangla words we learned because we saw them all the time and the word is easy to say and remember.

You may have already guessed where this is going. Ezra has heard us saying "tik-tiki" whenever we hear or see a gecko since he was about 6 months old. He also hears the staff in our house saying the same word. So, when spring came and the geckos were again in full force, Ezra was constantly seeing them and saying the famous "ooohhh". Until one day, about 3 weeks ago, I was pointing to one and saying "tik-tiki" - and Ezra repeated "tik-tiki". We were stunned. It was great that all 3 of us (me, Jeremy, and Emily) were together to witness it. We stared at each other in disbelief....until, he said it again. Since then, Ezra has been faithfully saying tik-tiki every time he sees or hears one. Actually, he likes them so much (who can't like a gecko?), that now we catch him saying tik-tiki and looking at the ceiling when he wants to see one.

So, Ezra has begun taking and ironically, his first word was the same as one of our "first" words here. His second clear word was "babu" (yes, another Bangla word), which means baby. This is another one he hears constantly because everyone is calling out to him. Some have claimed he says other words, like hello, but I've yet to hear them. But any way around it - Ezra is a very expressive little boy.