A Word in Season

On Tuesdays, we typically head out to a local toddler Story Hour, which means that the girls miss their morning nap.  It’s a small price to pay for the socialization – for them and for me.  The girls’ weariness is generally overcome by their excitement at interacting with (or just watching, slack-jawed) other small children.  It’s not until we arrive back home that their fatigue catches up with them, and they wander around the house, whining and restless.  Now that I think about it, maybe their behavior is due less to lack of sleep, and more to the disappointment at once again being home with only each other and me to look at all day…hmm…In any case, the three of us are always very ready for their afternoon nap to come.

I was especially eager today for the girls to rest, as I’ve been fighting a persistent headache, and I was hoping to be able to lay down for a few minutes while the girls slept.  So when it was nearly naptime, I gathered Becky into my lap and asked her in what I assumed was a rhetorical voice, “What time is it?”  To my surprise, she looked up and said, “Nigh-Nigh!” (translation: Night-Night, which is what I call naptime).  I nearly cried tears of joy, both because I considered this to be her first word, and because I was really ready for all of us to go to bed.  I thoroughly congratulated her on her intelligence and perceptiveness, and ushered the girls upstairs. 

Becky was indeed ready for naptime, and she took a good long sleep, but Susie must have decided that since she wasn’t the one to respond to my question, she wasn’t going to go “Nigh-Nigh.”  She alternatingly fussed and played in her crib for the duration of their naptime, which meant that sleep eluded me as well.  However, I was instead able to use the time to get some much-needed cleaning done, and fortunately my headache subsided somewhat as well. 

I’m not completely positive that “Nigh-Nigh” is in fact Becky’s first word, because on New Year’s Day, she might have uttered a version of “Cracker” or “Cookie” that sounded like “cuh-cuh.”  But I wasn’t sure if she had spoken the word spontaneously, or she was simply repeating the sounds after I said them.  Both girls are getting better at that.  They can repeat “Hi” (“Eye-eee”), “Tommy” (“Tah-eee), “Yay,” and my niece Alli will be happy to know that Susie even repeated her name this evening (“Ayeee”), but they don’t say any of those things without me saying them first.  And of course, they’ve been saying “Mama,” “Dada,” and also “Bubba,” which is their collective name for Jim’s parents.  So while my mom confidently informs me that my first word was “Light,” I’m not similarly certain of the girls’ first words.  But for the sake of their baby book (which, for all intents and purposes, is this blog), I’m announcing that Becky’s first word is “Nigh-Nigh.”  Does she get extra points for the two syllables?

But all this “Nigh-Nigh” talk is making me sleepy.  I’m going to go join the girls in slumberland.  Nigh-Nigh, dear readers!