Oh "No"!

So I have come to understand that the concept of a child's "first word" is a bit nebulous. Cecilia has occasionally said several words but has almost never used them consistently. I think "Da Da" and "Ma Ma" were the first - one of my favorite things is when I am out of the room and I walk in and she looks up at me and says "Da Da...." letting the list "a" linger. Talk about one of the great joys of life! She also says "Na Na" (for Tajamina) and has said "hi" and "bye" once or twice.

I guess for the record we will only count her official first word as something she uses regularly...and I think we unfortunately have our first entrant - "no". She knows how to shake her head when she doesn't want something and has lately occasionally backed it up with the word.

One day last week she was engaged in one of her favorite activities, playing with the open refrigerator. Whenever you open it she makes a mad dash over there and is endlessly fascinated by the contents and will stay there as long as we let here. Part of the forbidden fruit syndrome, I guess. A few weeks ago Joanne hit on this great strategy where you ask Cecilia if she can "help Mommy" and close the door. I guess her excitement at being able to help and close the door outweighed her fascination with the refrigerator. Anyway it was a brilliant strategy, because if you had to pull her away to close the door she would cry, and it was working like a charm for a while...up until last week.

There she was playing in the refrigerator and I said, "Can you help Daddy close the refrigerator? Can you close the door"? She just looked up at me and said "No!" and kept on playing. Sigh.