Victory

When Emily was a baby Ryan and I could not wait to see what her first word was going to be. The experts say that a baby's first word is usually Mama or Dada. So during the day I would say mama to Emily a lot, secretly hoping that she would say it first. When Ryan came home at night he would say dada over and over again to her, just like most parents do. I don't really remember which one she said first, but she started calling Ryan, Myda.




When Joe arrived, there was much of the same anticipation over his first word. However during the Joe baby period, I realized that if they learned your name they could call for you in the night and it gave Ryan the perfect excuse not to get up........"He's calling for you."




So when Josh came I changed my game and started encouraging him to say Dada when he started to jabber. Ryan quickly caught on and encouraged Mama. I can't really say which one he said first, because he had his own language, and I think his first word was Boo boo. (train) But, I am happy to say that when Josh moved from his crib to a bed I trained him to go to dad's side of the bed when he got up in the middle of the night.



Valerie has been quite talkative as a baby and jabbers on about many things, no real words yet, but lots of good talking. Then last night as I was making dinner, the magical sound of Dada started to fill the room over and over again.

Victory!

When Ryan realized what she was saying he immediately started encouraging her to say Mama, but the only response he got was.......da da da da da.




She hasn't connected the sound da to the meaning of the word dad yet, but it wont be long, and she is not even trying to say Mama yet. This might make some moms a little sad, but not me. I know I am still her favorite because, she always comes to me over dad, but now when she calls out in the middle of the night I can roll over and say, "She's calling for you."




Lucky for Ryan, Valerie is a good sleeper and rarely wakes up before 7:00am.