THE SWEETEST WORDS

There are moments in your life that remain in your heart forever. One of those is when she says "I do." Another is the sound of your baby's first cry. Fathers always seem to become animated when their children speak for the first time.

And for years and years since babies have been born, probably 98.9% of the time a baby's first words are always "Da-Da." It's happened with our two previous children. Now, add my latest born to the list.

While on vacation in Boone this past weekend, my sweet little Twilight, Catherine Grace, uttered her first words. Now, you have to consider the problem with this: she's only eight months old. My other children haven't spoken quite this early. But ... there she was, uttering a proud father's favorite two words from a baby.

At first, I wasn't sure. It was late evening, and my eldest daughter and I had gone for a walk around the campground of Julian Price Memorial Park off the Blue Ridge Parkway. I carried Catherine on my shoulders in a baby back-pack. We stopped for a brief moment of rest. As we got back up to walk -- I heard it for the first time: "Da-Da."

Instantly, I gravitated to the words. "She said it." I thought to myself. "But -- maybe it was just babble." Naturally, I began to attempt to get her to say it again. "I love you. Can you say Daddy? Da-dd-y? Come on, baby, say Daddy."

Well, the more I talked, the quieter she got. So, Caitlyn and I stopped for one last rest before heading back to camp. Again, right before we got up, I heard her say it again "DA-DA!"

Confident, and full of pride, we headed back to camp where I proclaimed "Folks, I know you're not going to believe this -- but -- we have our first words. She said Da-Da."

Now, this always comes as a blow to any mother. "Yeah, Right." said my beautiful wife. Well, we just sat around the campfire for a little while -- and there she spewed off those beautiful consenants and vowels again! "Da-Da."

I ran up and kissed her -- praising her. She lit up with delight as she recognized how much attention she was getting. So again and again she started to repeat it. "Da-Da." And .... again and again she got praised.

And there you have it my friends: the precious first words of my third born child. Yep. She's a Daddy's girl. They all are.

Randy Gupton, fivesecondstoair.blogspot.com