Jessica Simpson Reveals 17-Month-Old Daughter Birdie’s First Word

Jessica Simpson and husband Eric Johnson welcomed their third child, daughter Birdie Mae, in March 2019, and the singer proudly revealed her daughter’s first word in a new interview with PEOPLE. Along with Birdie, Simpson and Johnson share 8-year-old daughter Maxwell Drew and 7-year-old son Ace Knute, and Simpson shared that Birdie’s first word was actually her brother’s name.

“Oh, she is the cutest. Oh my gosh,” she said of her youngest child. “It’s so cute to watch my older kids with her. My son and her are like BFFs! The cutest. When Birdie is laughing, like cackling, that is a contagious thing throughout the family. Her first word was ‘Ace.’” Simpson added that Birdie is “very observant” and “says hi to everybody.”

“She’ll stare you down for a bit and then, ‘Hi. Hi.’ She’s so cute,” she said. “She’s also a bruiser, she’ll just go darting off in one second and you’re like, ‘Wait, how’d you get all the way over there?’ It’s crazy. They’re growing up so fast.”

The designer’s two older kids are now in school, Maxwell in third grade and Ace in second, and Simpson shared that she is taking schooling during the coronavirus pandemic “one step at a time.”

“School is about to start back up. Woo. It’s like, ‘Come on kids. You can do this,’” she said. “Managing all of it, you just got to take one day at a time. For me, I have a lot of creative endeavors right now that I’m juggling and a lot of fun announcements that I’ll be making very soon.”

Simpson is making sure to stay connected with her kids during this time and shared that she prays with Maxwell every night, which helps them stay calm and grounded. “I put my oldest daughter to bed every night and we pray,” she said. “Once she falls asleep, I’ve realized what’s calmed her is that I start just Googling positive words and I just start talking, and then she’s out.”

As for her own time at home during the pandemic, Simpson revealed that it has been a “very enlightening experience, prayerful, [and] a journey” for sure. “I’ve had emotions that I’ve never had before and I’ve had to work my way through them,” she explained. “I’m Googling lots of motivational speeches, just trying to stay focused and keep everything aligned and really just have that steadfast faith.”