Dada!

Dear Livia,

Sometimes you are a lot like your brother. You do so many of the same things he did at your age, from throwing unwanted food off your tray, to shredding books, to climbing on the table, and on and on. I guess all children do those kinds of things.

That doesn’t mean you’re not unique. You put you own special spin on everything. For example, Marshall’s first word was “cookie.” You chose the remarkably similar “cracker” to be your first word, but then you amazed us by asking specifically for “graham cracker.” That was a mighty big phrase for such a small girl! You’re still so fond of graham crackers that your father and I sometimes have to refer to them in code. We call them “GC.”

Like Marshall before you, you point to the cat and say, “Dah!” And you point to the light and say, “Dah!” And like Marshall, you might be a little bit confused about the name “Dada.” For the longest time, Marshall would point to himself and say, “Dada!” So strongly did he seem convinced of this self-identity, we joked about him going through life using that name. But you have taken the dada thing to a whole new level. Not only Daddy, but also Marshall, the window, and the song “Pressure” are all “dada” to you. And one day you even pointed to yourself and said—yup, you guessed it— “Dada.”

In fairness to you, I must add that there seem to be slight differences in the way you say each dada. For example, Daddy is “Dada,” the window is more like “DAH-deu,” and Marshall is “DAAAH-da.” I think it’s great that you’ve picked up some of the the subtleties of language pronunciation, but if you don’t mind my making a suggestion, you really should work on the word “mama” a little bit more.

Love,

Mom

This entry was posted in Dear Livia. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.