If you're a parent or even someone who loves to hear the innocent, sweet sounds of a child speaking their first words, there are a few key words that just melt your heart. As Eli's beginning to experiment with the English language, he occasionally stumbles upon a word that is actually English. He has begun to increase his stock pile of recognizable words (at least by me and Ben). For awhile there, it was mama, dada, ball, more and then a whole lot of loud screaming (no...literally), gesturing and a slew of interesting words that are, I'm convinced, in the vocabulary books of his very own language.

I personally love the sound of ma-ma. It's sad to watch your child grow and begin to go from ma-ma to mommy and then to mom. So, I kinda bask in the sound of ma-ma.

Well, somehow Eli has decided to ditch the innocent "ma-ma" stage. I don't know if it was just lacking the cool factor or what.

I'm now affectionately beckoned with, "MAWWWWWWWWW!"

Hmm... sweet isn't it? I'm feeling pretty jipped. Ben still is "Da-da", Nate is still a gentle "Uhh-uh" (which is a general term, but in this context means "Hey, you") and Ava is still "ba-by".

I get "MAWWWWWWWW! Ish-bish ball lupp-up uppy mooore" (translated means, "let's play that game where we pass the ball from me to you again.") The latter is always spoke in a completely calm intonation. What's that all about?

I know what the parent books would all say... do not respond to the undesired behavior. Yeah, at this decibel, it's a little hard to ignore.