I took Chloe to the grocery store and was glad to have a baby to talk to. It’s less awkward when I’m talking to myself in public if I have a baby sitting in front of me, even though she isn’t necessarily an active participant in our conversation, she takes the pressure off. People are more accepting of a woman talking to herself if she has a partial audience.

I picked up a bunch of bananas and said, “Next we need some apples.”

The dangling legs from the cart replied, “Abu.”

I looked at Chloe, her eyes lit up. “Abu.”

Me: Did you just say ‘apple?’

Chloe: Abu.

Abu. Abu. Abu. Abu. Aboooooooo. Big grin. High fives. This. Is. Cool.

Into her bushel of tricks along with pointing to her nose after hearing, “Chloe, where’s your?” is exhilarating. It’s most effective when you actually get the word “nose” out before she points and granted, she points to her nose if you finish the “where’s my” sentence with “foot”, “shoe”, or “ass-less chaps”, but it was fun to know she was processing information, patterns and making connections.

So little Abu impressed me in that moment because she repeated the word and made an association with an object and the word it represents. This is progress, we have a small, human thinker on our hands and this stage of development is just plain cute.

She’s been looking around the room, pointing at objects and asking, “abu?”

No Chloe, that’s the puzzle piece you chewed up and gagged on yesterday, it’s not an apple.

Chloe hugging her pillow pet: Abu?

No Abu, that’s not an apple either. I’m beginning to re-think this whole praising your child thing as I’ve created an apple picking monster.

She waves at herself in the mirror and says, “baby, baby, baby, baby………abu.” Clearly, we’ve stopped giving her any positive feedback when she says “baby,” onto bigger and juicier.

No baby Abu, you were doing just fine with “baby”. Let’s only say apple when we are actually holding, shining, eating or shopping for an apple.

Chloe crying from her crib after a nap: waaaah waaah waaaah waaaah waaaaah waaaaah…….abu.

Through the monitor I can hear her calling for Abu. Not certain if she’s Abu, if I’m Abu, if an apple is an apple or an abu, if Abu, the convenience store clerk on the Simpsons is in any way offended, she knows it scores her loads of attention and when you have so few negotiating tactics at thirteen months old, some of them are bound to be overused.

Tomorrow’s lesson–edamame.