The Evolution of Milk

Okay, before you assume this is a science lesson, let me say it's actually just a cute story about Toby!

When Toby was an infant, I quickly learned to differentiate his cries, and he had a distinctive cry when he was hungry and wanted milk. As he grew, I began teaching him some sign language, and "milk" was one of the first words he began to sign. I cannot get over how adorable it is to see babies using sign language! I could never say no to that little hand opening and closing, telling me my son was needing some Mommy milk.

As Toby reached the toddler stage and began talking, many of his words were actually fairly close to the real words (like ball, for example). His word for milk, however, was nowhere close--he would make the sign for milk and say, "Ga-goo." This went on for several months, until he transitioned to "Ga-kee." He also quit doing the sign language about this time.

I figured it was only a matter of time before he began to say "milk"--after all, his vocabulary expanded quickly, and has been pretty clear for the most part. However, I didn't think that at 22 months old, my son would still be saying "Ga-kee" when he was thirsty! It became his pet name for milk, and he did not want to let go of it! Just in the past two weeks, he has started to say milk. At first, he would only say it when prompted to after saying ga-kee, but he is now starting to say milk more and more often. If we give it a couple more weeks, I think the word ga-kee will be a thing of the past...and I have to admit, I will miss it just a little bit.