Eloise's First Word

Eloise has been babbling a lot lately. Lots of squealing sounds, mamamamas, and dadadadadadas. However, you can't count anything as a baby's first word (unless you want to, of course. your baby=your rules) until they understand the word and use it correctly (i.e. saying "mamamamamamama" to her books doesn't equal her saying "mama"). So, up until yesterday, Eloise had not said her first word.

William and I have always joked about doing secret tactics to get our kids to say our names first. We both failed with Luka as his first word was "ball," so there was a lot of competition over who would "win" with Eloise. Here is a hint: the whole "daddy's girl" thing is real.

Despite knowing her daddy through Skype for most of her life, Eloise's first real word is "Dada." Yesterday, we were skyping with William and I held Eloise up to see William as always. She hadn't been babbling beforehand or anything, just quietly playing. I told her to say hi once she could see William's face on the screen and she cracked a big smile and said clear as day "Dada!" Not "dadadadada." Not babbling afterwards. No ifs, ands, or buts. Eloise looked at her  daddy and said "Dada." 

I would be lying if I said I didn't tear up a smidge. This sweet baby girl who has only been with her dad in person for a total of three months of her life, just knows in her heart that he is her daddy and it is so very clear how much she loves him. So maybe I didn't "win" this one, but that's okay. I think William deserved this first word anyway. Despite the distance, he goes out of his way to be an amazing dad to both of our sweeties. Besides, we want a bunch of kids. Mama is bound to win one first word war, right?

-Kacy