Was dat?

There is quite a bit of variety in when children say their first word and in what that word it is.  Sometimes it is hard to tell what a child's first word is because sometimes they say stuff that kind of sounds like a word, but it is hard to tell if they actually know what they are saying.  Sam's first word was "ball" and "Mama" was close behind.  I think Gracie's first word was "Dada" but it didn't necessarily mean "Daddy" it meant "adult person who can help me" without regard to gender.  Another one of her first words was "lellow" which meant .... "I want water".  I am not totally sure how that came about, but I think it come from "bottle", though I don't know how she would have learned that because she hardly ever used a bottle.
For Jonah, it is really hard to say what his first word was or even if he has really said one.  He babbles all the time and he seems to be saying something, but it is really hard to tell exactly what he is saying.  He certainly understands language pretty well.  The other day Sam and Grace came in from playing outside, and as is too often the case, left the front door wide open.  I was downstairs and yelled upstairs at them to come close the door.  They "didn't hear me", but little Jonah did and he went over and shut the door and then looked over at me like "look I did it".   While I say it hard to really say what was Jonah's first word, he does have a clear first "phrase", which is "Was dat?" or "What's that?".  Anytime he doesn't know what something is, he points and says "Was dat?" and is usually quite pleased when you tell him the answer.  It is a little hard to catch on film, because as soon as you pull the camera out, he wants to look at it, but I caught a little bit of it while reading him stories tonight (At the end of it is a good example of him almost saying words but not quite.  He says "Was dat?.. A doggy! (though it is really a mommy otter, but it does kind of look like a dog):