She says "Mama!"

Sasha started saying mamama a few weeks ago but last week she started saying "Mama." She says it a lot on her own and will repeat me if I say it. So far, it doesn't mean me but I know it will pretty soon. It wasn't the first word for any of my other children and I love that it is hers! She also does this little grunting sound that is her way of communicating to us. She does it when I am holding her and she is at the end of her bottle or when I am holding her before she goes to sleep at night. I have found that I automatically repeat it back to her and then she'll do it again. What is funny is that she has gotten all of us to do it. I will hear both Brookelyn and Brayden doing it to her and her doing it back on our way to and from school. I have also heard my older son and daughter doing it back to her as well. Sometimes Brookelyn makes the sound when Sasha isn't even around. I think she just thinks it's a playful sound, not just a baby sound. My oldest daughter also taught her something that Sasha has turned into a game. On the way home from school one day Dakota squeezed her eyes shut for a couple of seconds while Sasha was watching her. Sasha did it back and they did it back and forth a few times. Ever since Sasha has started playing that with us. She really likes to do it at night when I am holding her in the rocking chair in her room. I actually have to shut my eyes or put her against my shoulder so she will stop tryng to play with me. And she is too cute to not keep doing it back.
We got hit hard with the flu this last week. Brookelyn got it one morning. She threw up twice and then slept all day. She was so sweet and just wanted me to hold her when she was awake. Otherwise she was so easy. Brayden got it the next night and had it much worse. He threw up a lot for about six hours and then layed around the house for the next too days. He was easy too. Poor things. Then I got it. Bad. The kind of flu that makes you want to die. I wanted to die, but I was too busy throwing up. Oh, and we gutted our master bathroom the day after Christmas so I had to run down the hall each time and hope no one else was in there. Nice. Unfortunately, I couldn't lay around recovering because I had to take care of the kids. Sasha was really hard for two days. She had gotten a flu shot so I think she didn't quite get the flu, she just felt badly. She is usually very easy but those two days she cried or whimpered even when I held her. That never happens. We made it through and all feel better except that my husband and Brayden have that ongoing cough a lot of people seem to have.
I thought Sasha was going to take her first step yesterday. She was standing on her own and looking at a toy that was a couple of feet away. She looked like she was going to step towards it and then lowered herself down and crawled to it. She is still very young but I wouldn't be surprised if she was a early walker. She also loves to play with balls. She kind of pushes it away from herself and then crawls to it and pushes it away again. Tonight she and I played a game with a ball where we kept pushing it back and forth to eachother. She was pretty good at getting it to me. She is so much fun to be with!