Ethan doesn’t say many words, but he likes to say his favorite, Mama. It used to be he’d say it in response to first hearing the word, but more recently he’s been initiating, as he did this afternoon after his nap. This prompted me to make up a little melody with just the word Mama, around a dozen notes long, just for fun. I thought I was merely providing an entertaining sound for him to listen to, but was I ever surprised when he repeated the melody back to me, matching my rhythm and relative pitches.