Sam's first word?

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."

We've had some debate in the house of late as to whether young Samson has said his first word. He's good at identifying what things are; when you ask where the cat is, he will point to the cat. He'll also, if you don't look too eager to hear it, say "ish, ish, ish."

But his big thing is lights. Houselights, streetlights, spotlights, flashlights, blinking arrow construction lights; if you've got a light, he's pointing at it and saying "t." He's figured out the last sound (phoneme?) of the word light and correctly associates it with lights.

I think this is great and love hearing it. But it's not a word. At least it's not a word in English. Vicki disagrees. Her thinking is that the association with the object and the consistent use of the sound qualifies.

[I should note that this is a friendly disagreement; we are not the kind of parents who pore over statistics for milestones and worry that he's not matching up --- so he doesn't clap yet; it's not a life skill, and if he never learns, he'll be exempt from the awkward moment in every concert when someone starts the clap-along (usually off-rhythm) and everyone else joins in but then gets stuck worrying when it will spontaneously end and if they will be the 'extra clap' person who gets caught out like the last man standing in a musical chairs finale. But I digress.]

I'm not trying to be the Grinch here, but I'm inherently suspicious of parents who report that their kids spoke at very young ages (I'm looking at you, Mom).

I mean, Sam has been clicking his tongue for months now, but that doesn't mean he's suddenly fluent in Khoisan.