Hoda Kotb Hilariously Reveals Daughter Haley Joy’s First Word Was “Bob”
Usually, a baby’s first word is something pretty generic, like “mama” or “dada.” But for Haley Joy Kotb, it was neither of those. Proud mom Hoda Kotb recently revealed her daughter’s hilariously random first word was… “Bob.” She added, “We don’t know who Bob is. Every time she said it we kept laughing going, ‘Who is Bob?’ I’m sure it was a combination of bottle and some other thing.” How funny!
The one-year-old is learning quickly, though, and has already picked up some more common words. “She can say ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ which is great. My mom taught her how to say ‘mama’ when I was in Korea,” Hoda told People. “It was so cool, she sent me the video but then I started to think maybe Haley thought ‘mama’ was the phone.”
Born on Feb. 14, 2017, little Haley recently celebrated her first birthday. Unfortunately, her mama was away traveling for the milestone birthday — Hoda was in South Korea at the time covering the 2018 Winter Olympics with Today — but the mother-daughter duo was luckily able to celebrate a little early. “It’s already Valentine’s Day in South Korea and I am missing my Valentine’s baby! We celebrated little Haley’s birthday before I left. Admittedly, I could have been a bit better with camera placement,” the 53-year-old captioned the cutest Instagram video of herself singing “Happy Birthday” to her baby.
Since Haley entered Hoda’s life — the Today anchor adopted her in February 2017 — she hasn’t been able to stop gushing about the joys of motherhood. And the happy mama has found the perfect way to express her love for her little girl: by writing a children’s book inspired by Haley! Titled I’ve Loved You Since Forever, the book “is a celebratory and poetic testament to the timeless love felt between parent and child.”
“I used to think that work was the most important thing in the world. I just did. But I didn’t know what really mattered until you came along,” Hoda said of Haley. “You arrived and everything changed. When I was waiting for you, hoping for you, wishing for you, I wrote down, ‘I’ve loved you since forever,’ because I knew you were out there somewhere. And we were going to find each other. Sometimes all you can do is pray, hope, wish, want, dream, and then wait — and you arrived.” How sweet is that?!
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