Year 2 Day 311: Next Milestone, Please

We took Ryan's '7 month' photos today outside under one of the apple trees. Considering he is actually 7 months, 2 weeks & 5 days, I edited the sign to reflect that he is really 7 1/2 months old.

In fairness, I have been waiting a bit for the weather to cooperate, and we have had lots of rainy and otherwise overcast days lately. Couple that with the fact that I wanted to take his photo in this specific outfit (which never seemed to be in the pile of clean clothes) and mix in the obvious 'lazy Mommy' and 7 1/2 months is what you get.

In other news we're thinking Ryan has said his first word -- or at least his own modified version of it. He gets super excited when our cat, Myst walks by and gets a huge grin across his face. If Myst gets close enough he tries to touch his fur (which is usually his tail) and Myst makes a timely exit from Ryan's reach as soon as the over-stimulated, high-pitched screeches begin.

Well each time we have a Myst-encounter I will say 'cat' as clearly as I can, along with describing his fur as 'soft' and showing Ryan how to stroke him with a 'gentle' touch. All of these are in hopes to help him become familiar with the words and encourage him to try using them. This has been going on ever since Ryan has shown an interest in Myst (at around 2 months old).

Yesterday I noticed Ryan was making a coughing sound although it wasn't a proper cough. It also had a very distinctive short 'a' vowel sound, as in the word 'cat.' I didn't think much of it until I noticed he was doing it again today and only when Myst was in the room where Ryan was clearly looking at him. Later I was talking to Matt and I said to Ryan, "Say CAT" and I pointed to Myst. Ryan immediately started doing his little "CAT cough" and grinned from ear to ear. Then, even when Myst was out of the room, if I would tell him to say it, he kept repeating it.

So, I'm not saying my kid's a genius or anything (which he clearly IS) but it seems we may have at least a close call on a first word to record in the baby book! I'm counting it anyway.