Coo Coo Cachoo

The twins recently hit a new milestone. This is a real milestone too, not one of those quasi-milestones like “slept four hours overnight,” “slept four and a quarter hours overnight,” or “blew out a diaper.” Their new milestone is cooing, and they’re both doing it. Before their sole form of non-crying communication was grunting, like they were a couple of feral babies we plucked out of the woods. Most of their communication is still in grunt form, but when they’re relaxed they occasionally make soft cooing sounds and appear to be the sweetest babies in the world. Then they spit up.

Cooing is an important communication milestone. Cooing leads to babbling, which leads to word-like sounds, which lead to actual words, which lead to multi-word sentences, which lead to talking back, which leads to silence as the child ignores the hopelessly out of touch parent, thus completing the cycle. I’m especially focused on the communication milestones with the twins since Abbie is still stuck on the word-like sounds phase.

I probably had nothing to do with her delay in speech as children start talking, and any other milestone for that matter, when they’re good and ready. Still, I can’t help but feel that if I had done things differently when she was their age, like encouraging her babbling more or possibly even dropping her fewer times, maybe she’d be using actual words by now, or even talking back already.

I especially feel like I didn’t talk to her enough when she was an infant. I’d feed her while reading the newspaper or watching an especially pivotal sporting event, and remain silent the entire time. I’ve resolved to talk to the twins more than I did with Abbie. The catch is, I had my reason for not talking more to Abbie, specifically I don’t know what to say. If they could talk back, that would give me some ideas, but it’s like talking to a dog without the feedback of a wagging tail or even a cocked head; to put it in simpler terms, talking to a newborn is like talking to a cat. I say whatever pops into my head, but I quickly run out of things to say. I also end up saying the same things day after day; I can only ask if they had a good nap* or if they like their milk** so many times.

I’m trying to talk more though, and I think I’m doing it. It may not make any difference; they could be the opposite of Abbie and say their first words at 10 months and take their first steps at 30 months. No matter when they decide to talk, it all starts with some cooing.

* Probably not.
** Considering what mama had to do to make that milk, they’d better like it.