Tuesday, May 18, 2010

AND BABY'S FIRST WORD IS...

....DADA!!!

At approximately 8:30pm on Monday, May 17th 2010, Camryn Rose Hopkins said "Dada." And now I'm going to give you an overly detailed account of how it all went down...















So there I was, working on a quadratic equation that COULD very well hold the key to curing various forms of cancer...i was feverishly puffing away at my pipe and intently swirling my snifter of brandy...ok, fine. we were eating tacos and watching a show about midgets. and i know midget is no longer PC but its funnier than "Little People" or "Dwarf" so i went with it. big deal.

Anyway, Camryn had one of her signature ass-explosions just before we sat down to eat. Upstairs we went for a changin'. So I was changing her upstairs as usual and she was just staring at the wall, doing the usual baby things. Then suddenly, Camryn started making the correct motions with her mouth and breathing faint sounds at the same time...so it sounded like she was whispering "daa daa daa daa daa daa" over and over. I kind of dismissed it because I tend to think that we trick ourselves into hearing "words" that aren't really words whenever Camryn makes sounds. When she says her first word, we want to get it right and have it actually BE a first word.

With that said, I brought Camryn down stairs where we were eating dinner on the couch. I put her down and she configured herself on the boppy pillow in much the same way that she was sitting on the changing table upstairs. She was staring at the couch and suddenly opened her mouth and whispered "daa daa daa daa daa daa" yet again...so faint, but quite obvious as to what she was saying. Her head was tilted back and she was staring at the white couch cushion...much like how she was staring at the white wall upstairs on the changing table. This seemed to help her concentration so that she could focus on producing the same "dada" that she had heard her parents (and grandparents) utter to her so many times before.

I muted the TV so we could take a closer listen. Camryn was focusing all her attention on the white couch cushion. As the minutes went by, the quiet whisper of "daa daa daa daa daa" became a slightly harder "daadaadaadaadaa" which became a significantly more confident "dadada," and eventually, after a lot of persistence, and the addition of a bit of bass in her voice, Camryn belted out a perfect, and quite audible "DA DA" to our great delight and pride.

To be sure, Kimmie and I both said "da da" a few more times so that she could repeat...and she did...and on most repeat performances, the hard "DA DA" would eventually trail off into the soft "daa daa daa daa daa," which is quite possibly the cutest thing I've ever heard in my life. "DA DA" makes me proud, but "daa daa daa daa daa" makes me giggle like Homer Simpson when he hears the word "titmouse." Yeah. It's that good.

Also, I could tell this was the first word because Kimmie's eyes welled up with tears every time Camryn said it...that's never happened...Its the real deal. What a great moment. DADA!

As I said to you last night, Camryn: "Well done kiddo. Ya did it!"

We did get a LITTLE bit of it on video later in the evening. I'll try to edit and post it this week.

2 comments:

  1. Great story Johnny! What a wonderful moment in time. That picture at the end of the blog needs a caption. I'm thinking something like... that's right, I said dada, easy for you, and yes, I'm working on mama, that's next, just give me something white to stare at, speaking of which, I'm hungry!

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  2. Thanks, Uncle Pete...I love the caption! Lets go with that one - and i'll throw in a line like "i think talkin is the bees knees, see" (since she resembles a 1920's flapper in this picture) :)

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