Groovymarlin.com

Yesterday, after we had her in her pajamas, my husband decided to take Veronica on a little walk in her stroller. It was beautiful outside, right around 7pm, her normal bedtime, and nothing seems to help her fall asleep like a.) a car ride or b.) a ride in the stroller around the block. So he strapped her in and prepared to set off as I watched from the front porch. I waved and said “See you later baby, bye-bye!”

And then it happened. She looked right at me, picked up her chubby little hand, and made the universal finger-flexing “grabbing” sort of move that little kids use to wave “bye-bye.” I swear to God my heart skipped a few beats.

“Did you see what she did?” I demanded of my husband. “Did she wave back at you?” he asked, unbelieving. I assured him that’s exactly what she had done. So he came around to the front of the stroller and waved bye-bye to her himself. To which she responded by not only waving bye-bye, but by saying: “A-dah.”

A-dah?! People, that is baby-speak for “bye-bye!”

It is a sobering moment when your baby ceases to be completely a baby, and starts really responding to you in ways much more polite than you can probably look forward to when she is a teenager. What I’m saying is HOLY SHIT I cannot believe my daughter is now 10 months old and waving bye-bye to me. It’s the same feeling I had when I saw her sit up by herself for the first time: “Where did she learn that? Oh my GAWD do that again!”

Man. Parenthood is awesome.