Words: If God deemed it acceptable to use in the Bible, then I can say it in my blog. Right?

Baby language is a funny thing. Ali says around 150 words, and a lot of them are as clear as a bell, but most of them are her version of the word. As long as you have the secret decoder ring, you can understand her perfectly. Such as:

ou-die = outside
on-na = all done (sounds a lot like ou-die, but no d)
eeeeeee = eat
amah-ama and adah-ada = how she says Momma and Daddy sometimes – it sounds totally Arab.
maam = milk

Anyway, you get the point. Another interesting thing about baby language is that she says these words “her way” very consistently. You can always count on her to say maam for milk, and know exactly what she means. Every now and then, however, a word will “evolve”. Sometimes it will become closer to the actual word, but sometimes it will go farther away from it.

Today, the word “eyes” evolved. She is obsessed with eyes – she points them out in pictures, on her toys and baby dolls, in books, and on people. She calls them “ice”. It excites her very much to point out ice. If you remember, she even associates her future baby cousin eli with ice. Everytime we say “Eli’s”, she points to our eyes and says “Ice”. Today, however, “ice” evolved in to an extremely clearly enunciated “ass”. She was pointing to all her toys this morning and saying “ass” in her usual excited voice. I don’t know if she’s developing an early southern drawl or what, but I can’t wait until we go to the mall today and she points at everyone’s face and enthusiastically says “ass!!”