We just had an absolutely magical moment with Sara Bela. On Saturday, my Dad found another way to deeply entertain Sara Bela -- he's been pulling out all the stops with his knowledge of linguistics and baby brains. He made three "buh" sounds and then a "puh". She loved it! And they kept it up for a while! Hannah taped the last part of it, which is lovely, although SB had calmed down a bit by then. This evening, we were lying in our bed with Sara Bela, it was time for her to go sleep, and she was nursing. But she was playing the first-nurse-then-turn-and-look-at-dad-and-smile-and-then-look-at-mom-and-smile-and-then-repeat game and so we started talking to her. I tried out the game my Dad started -- the buh buh buh PUH -- and Sara Bela was pleased, and then said, clearly, "puh". We were stunned! And while she makes a lot of noises and consonant sounds ... I don't remember her making a "puh" sound before. (Hannah had heard her make the sound.) We were delighted and she was happy. I tried again ... buh buh buh puh ... and she made another "puh" sound in response, after a pause, although this time quieter. I did it again, and she responded again, again quietly. At that point she started looking at the lamp and was distracted from the whole game. Amazingness! It's always hard to know what is a response and what is experimentation, but this was the first time I made a noise and she so clearly repeated it. Wonderful, wonderful.