hate the fact that just because I’m interested and involved in my baby’s life, I must be a mother. Don’t fathers care about their babies too? It reminds me of the first time that Cooking Light included makeup and fashion tips in an issue - because only women cook. At that point, I stopped reading the magazine. (Jessica still goes through it every month and pulls out recipes she likes and puts them in a binder… and then I cook them.)
Anyway, here’s the latest e-mail from BabyCenter:

At this age your baby’s repertoire of sounds may include squeals, bubbling noises, operatic octave changes, and babbling. About half of all 6-month-olds babble — repeating one syllable such as “ba” or “ma” over and over. Encourage his budding language skills by babbling right back at him and by making a game of it (”The sheep says ‘baaa,’” or “The goat says ‘maaa,’” and so on).

That’s exactly where Tommy is. He started off a week ago (while I was at Pennsic) with “ba ba ba”. Now, he’s moved on to “da da da” - which while he doesn’t mean anything by it, I enjoy immensely. In fact, with the aforementioned squeals, sometimes it even comes out “da DEE!” He’s such a good boy. And a little thug. Unfortunately, Jessica gets more than her fair share of head butts to the mouth, biting, punches to the face and kicks to the chest. Daddy is not exempt. I was on my back, in bed yesterday morning playing with him. We were babbling at each other, belly to belly, when he rubbed his face on my chest and bit my nipple. Jessica had no sympathy.