he speaks

We have enough evidence now to say that without a doubt, Gavin has uttered his first word. And what is that word? you are asking. It's not mama. It's not dada. It's not even dog (unless you count signing, in which case dog would probably be his first word). No, Gavin's first word is "apple."

I started noticing a few days ago that he seemed to be repeating what I was saying when I would put down a piece of cooked apple on his high chair tray and say "apple." At first he said, in a soft whisper of voice, "ahh-p-hh." Over the weekend I thought he might be actually saying the word, and then last night at Devon's birthday party I got him to say it several times, this time quite clearly. Or, as clearly as an almost-eleven-month-old says anything.

And then, as if that wasn't enough, yesterday and today he's been making "woof" noises. He does it when he hears a dog barking or when I ask him what a doggy says. It's really cute, but it is a sound completely unreproducible (irreproducible? - ducable? what word and I traying to use here?). Sometimes it's a grunty kind of noise, while others it's a "wwuh" sound, and others it actually has a "fff" in it.