Allie tries to be very fair. She’s not for gender bias at all. In fact, when we’re out, half the adults who mill over to admire her think she’s a boy. “Awww, what a cute little guy!” too many people said on Sunday while we were at the Irvine Spectrum, which prompted Mr. W to immediately spend $40+ on head wraps with interchangeable bows and flowers. Allie wore one immediately, as you can see in the photo of her asleep in the car an hour later.

(We’d missed her naptime by minutes, so she went to sleep in the car on the drive home. I waited out the nap with her in the car parked on our driveway, knowing it’d be a short one. Her late afternoon naps have become half an hour long, just enough to get a little refresher before she goes down for the night at around 7p.)

When Allie’s in a good mood, she babbles and coos and blows bubbles. Her new favorite sounds, aside from the “pptttthhh” of bubble blowing, are a high-pitched “Aah!” and “Haaa-ummmmm” and “Hhhiiiii.” We’ve been trying our best to familiarize her with words we expect her to use first. “Mamamamama? Papapapapa? Allieallieallieallieallie?” She would just smile silently in return. When we came home from work yesterday, Jayne (with her younger teenage daughter, playing with Allie in the backyard) said excitedly, “She said her first word today!”
“Really? What is it?” Mr. W asked. The moment it took for Jayne to respond was suspense-filled. Would it be mama?

Would it be papa?

Jayne said, “It was ‘hi.’ ”
“She’s been saying ‘hi’ all weekend, I don’t think it’s actually a word,” Mr. W laughed.
Jayne looked disappointed. “Oh, really? But we even said it back, and she repeated it! She said it like 5 times in a row!”
Hmm. Maybe Allie DID mean to say “hi.” How politically correct to not “choose” a parent as her first word.

I guess I’ll respect that Allie’s first word is a greeting to the world. Hello, world. Yes, I’m happy with that. As long as her second word is “mama.”