Bye!

Ella is 17 months old now. Typical of most 17-month olds, her vocabulary is pretty limited – she’s been signing the words MORE, EAT, MILK, PLEASE, THANK YOU and ALL DONE for several months and is now saying variations of those words as she signs them. I probably wrote it down somewhere, but I’m fairly certain “Mama” was her first clearly vocalized word, probably first uttered shortly after her first birthday; and since then she’s added “Ca” (Cal), “Da-dee” (Daddy), “Cacker” (Cracker), “Kee” (Kitty),  “Soo” (Shoe) and “Bye” (she says it to people, the cat, the toilet, air) as well as several animal sounds, “Baaaaaa!” being her favorite judging only by her enthusiasm and volume in saying it.

Her first word being “Mama” would probably be a surprise to no one.  Ella is and has always been a Mommy’s girl.  If she wants to be held, she wants me to do the holding. If she needs to be consoled, she wants me to do the consoling. If Dan and I are standing outside her room at school to pick her up at the end of the day, she runs to me.

At the end of the kids’ bath tonight, Dan came into the bathroom, ducky towel in hand, to get Ella out of the tub first. As has been typical of late, she put up a bit of a fight – she wanted Mama to dry her off.  Dan battled through it and quickly dried her off and got her into her jammies. He then brought her back into the bathroom, still crying, to give me kisses good night.

Instead of just giving her a kiss, I took Ella from Dan’s arms and starting going through my good-night routine with her. Kisses.  Hugs.  Little message.  At one point, she laid her head on my shoulder and nestled it tightly under my neck. I am a sucker for this. I could’ve stood there holding her like that all night. Fortunately for all of us, she lifted her head up, looked straight at Dan, and with her pouty pucker lips said, “Bye!” as she waved to him in what I will forever recall as being a shoo-ing sort of wave.

We laughed, which probably took the edge off a bit as he took her from my arms and carted her off to her room for books and bedtime.