"Ahhhhh-tooth!"

Yes, Chad, pun was intended in the title!

Noah has his first tooth!!!! It's his lower right incisor! I'm so happy for him b/c that means soon he'll be able to "chew" food. I'm hoping as his teeth come, his tongue will learn to mature also. What I mean is, right now he still does the suckle thing with his tongue when I put the spoon in. The next developmental stage is to move the jaw up and down and the tongue follows the up/down movement. Then the next progression is for the tongue to move side to side while the jaw is going up and down (a mature adult chewing pattern). Zeze already does this and is doing great with cheerios. They told me to not give Noah solids until his tongue and jaw pattern mature. Well, usually with babies when the teeth come, they are on the verge of "chewing" things, so my hope is that Noah will do that soon too!!

Also, he vocalized on command today! When I'm about to give Zeze a spoonful of food I say, "Ahhhh" and he opens his mouth and he started saying, "Ahhh" with me every time today. While I was doing it to zeze, noah did it to. So then I put the spoon in front of his mouth, said Ahhh, and waited for him to do it before I gave him the spoonful of food. It didn't take long. So I did it again and again and now he is making some sort of vocalization whenever I go, "Ahhhh"! I hope that will help him learn to talk (even though I know that is a loooonnng ways off...preparing to learn full sign language soon). We'll see if he remembers what he learned after he wakes up from his nap.

Anyway, I'm very encouraged. He's such a smart little guy!