Alice's First REAL Word

As opposed to her fake words, I ask myself? No, not really. What I mean is that Alice has been saying Mama, Dada, Hi, and Kitty (although she's only said it once, and she can't make the "k" sound and replaces it with the "t" sound. Yes, Joe giggled a little when she said it. He's so mature...Okay, I giggled, too). But this was the first time something came out so clear and perfectly pronounced that we knew right away what she had said. Here's the story:

I was putting Alice's pants on after her diaper change and getting her ready to leave. We needed to go to Costco to pick up some yogurt, parmesean cheese, and Clorox toilet tabs (although we came home with two new books and no cheese). Anyway, I said, "Hey, Pretty, are you ready to go to Costco? YAY!" I want to interject here and inform everyone that I say YAY at the end of everything me and Alice do, so she thinks life is a great adventure. We clapped and celebrated today when she walked in and out of the house on our patio. I am NOT overly excited about Costco (By the way, this strategy also works well on teenagers. I always have this joke that raising Alice is about the same thing as teaching sixteen year old Sophomores English. I decided to put this to the test, so one day, every time my students participated, or did something good, I shouted, "YAY!" and clapped my hands and celebrated. They thought I was nuts, but that was the best class discussion the whole year...anyway, back to the story...)

So, I said to Alice, "Hey, Pretty, are you ready to go to Costco? YAY!" and Alice looked at me, stood up and said, "Costco!" and started clapping and jumping up and down. Which is weird, because Alice lasts a whole five minutes at Costco.

So. My daughter's first "real" word was Costco. What does that say about me?