Precerpt from Raising God's Rainbow Makers: The Odd Way Each of the Rainbow Makers Learned to Talk
The common "wisdom" is that a child's first word is an indication of that child's personality. If true, then my rainbow makers are a collection of weird ducks! None of them said the expected "mama" or "dada." Lizzie did not have one first word. She had two (well, three words, two phrases) that appeared early. Somewhere around the time she started to walk (6 months--yeah, early with that, too). She had two expressions, which covered all needs for literally years (two years): "I like" used for any and all positive expressions, including asking for things, and "dumb" used for all negative expressions including just a gentle "no." The latter really upset Donnie's grandmother when she met little Lizzie for the first time. She did not like being called "dumb" when she offered Lizzie a piece of cake. (For the most part, my rainbow makers do not like the taste of sugar, and, therefore, pastries and baked goods...