First Word ?

Do I have an echo ?
Tonight, as I was playing with Elaina in her room, she kept crawling to the outlet to play with the plug of her wipes warmer. Because I didn't want electricity shooting through her little body and I didn't want her to think that this would be acceptable behavior, I continued to wrangle her back to me after a firm, "NO." In the midst of her baby- talk, she let out the cutest, little "no." And again, "no." And again. It was absolutely cute and so funny ! She continued to pound her hand on top of her diaper pail and talk in her gibberish with an occasional "no" or something to that affect which started with the "n" sound.

We have previously heard her sing the "Dada" song where she rambles a "dadadadadada" like most babies, and in a fit, she said something resembling "mmama." And as her mmama, that was close enough to "mama" for me ! She was praised with lots of hugs and kisses ! Hopefully she realized that they were in reward for her verbal skills and not her chronic case of the crankies !

Elaina has taken up reading my lips. Often, I will get directly in front of her face and annunciate words very clearly to her as I watch her little mouth try to form the same shape as mine. These little tutorials usually end in zerberts to her neck and lots of tickling and kisses as she begins to squeal ! There are plenty of times throughout the day where she will begin to excercise her voice with a constant "aaaaaaaaa" to which I will harmonize another "aaaaaaaa" at the same time. She looks forward to hearing my voice join hers as she smiles a goofy grin and raises and lowers her pitch. This is fun for us, as she thinks it's a for-real conversation. On the other hand, our fun chatter drives Eric nuts ! I think he's jealous that his voice just isn't girly enough !