Say WHAT?

The baby is talking. She says "Hi" which I generally think makes sense, since we say hi to her all the time and it's an easy thing to repeat. I thought it was cute, but didn't really count as conversation. I mean, it's not like she said hi first.

But then. She says ball. In pretty appropriate ways. The first time I thought it was a fluke. She and Pablo were playing with the beach ball in the back seat, he kept saying ball (like "BEEBZ, PLEASE THROW THE BAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!") and she said "ba" while holding it. Another example of repeating someone but not necessarily knowing what she is really saying. Easy to dismiss.

The second occurrence of saying ball was when she was playing on the floor. We have these tennis ball sized balls with fun stuff inside that rattles etc. She really loves scooting/ rolling to chase the ball around. She had been at it for a while and the ball got away from her. She lay there for a few minutes just staring into space, but content. Then she looked at the ball, looked back up at the ceiling, and said "ball." The "ll" was with her tongue sticking WAY out of her mouth in a uber cute way. I jumped up, saying, "Oh, did you want the ball?" and handed it to her. She grabbed it, delighted, and chewed on it for a second. Then she took it away from her mouth and said "BALL." This one is harder to call a fluke....

And then tonight, with me in full swing on this whole "my 6 month old is NOT talking" denial process, she said her brother's name. He was ignoring her, and she was staring straight at him. I was holding her, and said something to the effect of, "Yes, there is Pablo. He is really busy now isn't he?" I jabbered on a second about "brother" and "Pablo." And she said, "..." well, she said his real name, not Pablo, just for the record. Clearly. Ummm. Another fluke? Could be. Please?