Heh heh.

So says Miss Baby, whose vocabulary evolves from one key "happy sound" to another from day to day. I think Greg and I are both suprised to find ourselves already missing the demonic, gutteral growl she used for many weeks to express delight. It's gone! Before that it was a cough. A real sounding, hacking cough -- I'd sprint over to see if she'd inhaled a feather or had been stricken with a sudden illness, but no -- she's smiling, and in fact this is her version of what could only be called a chortle. That, too, is now rarely heard. In it's place is an oddly mature sounding: "HUH." or, "Heh Heh." She does in constantly, but specificly when we've done something to attempt to amuse her. Let's say I've sung a little song, clapping along with myself, smiling maniacly at her. She'll smile quizically, say "Heh," and go back to concentrating on whatever tag she's into at the moment. It makes one feel rather humored.



Oh yes, tags. My advice to new mothers is: NEVER cut a tag off of any toy, blanket, washcloth, or anything. Don't you know that this is the BEST PART? From what I understand, Sonja is not alone in her interest in them. Hand this baby any object, and she will intently turn it around and around until she finds its most special, sacred, awesome feature -- its silky while tag with its mysterious encrypted message printed on it. The bug-eyed look of concentration she gets as she examines a tag, engrossed for minutes at a time, KILLS me. And when I laugh, she laughs back -- Heh! Perhaps her first word will be "Whatevs."

But no, she's already said her first word, we think: "Blue." Or...something with a B, an L, and a vowel in it, whenever she sees a predominantly blue image on the tv. She gets ecstatic over Jeapordy, exclaiming repeatedly and gesticulating -- or maybe she knows the answers? Hmmm! I'll have to watch for category preferences.