My New Favorite Word

So Camille is talking. Not complete sentences by any means, but she has lots of words, lots of names for things, and it’s so amazing to see.

My first favorite was 'excuse me.' We taught her to say ‘excuse me’ when she wanted us to move our feet while she was playing, and she does actually use it correctly. Of course, she’s usually trying to push you out of the way when she says it, or she’s walking sideways between her pack-n-play and a stack of boxes during the move. So she’s polite to the boxes. Her version: “mee mee.” She sounds like the Road Runner. I love it.

My new favorite word of hers now, though, is ‘nipple.’ In the evenings, Michael would lay on the floor with the throw-pillows and play with her. (I’m pretty sure sitting Indian-style on the floor for any period of time is fairly uncomfortable for most guys.) She would jump all over him, steal his pillows, and pull up his shirt. So he taught her “belly” and “belly button.” Now any sort of button is a ‘be bu,’ and she’s rather merciless as she crams her little finger down into your stomach.

In these romping and naming sessions, she would push Michael’s shirt as far up as she could and was always fascinated with his nipples. So he taught her that word, too. Her version is “mee-moo.”

The other night most of her dinner managed to miss her bib. So while I’m stain-removing tomato sauce from a white onesie and she’s milling around in just a diaper, Michael tried to explain to her that, look!, she has mee-moos, too! She just looked at him like, “Okay, whatever.” and walked away patting her belly.