"BABY!"

Apparently, at some point in their young lives, toddlers go to a convention where they are told to point at all infants and yell, "BABY!" I first learned this when I would take Leo out in public. Every child between the ages of 16 months and 3 years would do this. Don't get me wrong; it's totally sweet and adorable. I just think it's so amazing that they all automatically do it and say it in the exact same way. Sometimes their moms can't get them to stop: "BABY! BABY! BABY!"

Mom: "Yes, that IS a baby. Now let's go."

Toddler: "BABY! BABY! BABY!"

Mom: "Who cares about the freakin' baby? We gotta go!"

Toddler: (screaming, stomping, thrashing...)

The other odd thing about it is how young kids will do this. Most of the ones that say it are babies themselves. Like this little girl Leo and I see all over town--at Michael's, at the park, at storytime. The first time we met her she said to Leo, "BABY!" He was 14 months old. She was 17 months old. She says it like this: "Bay-BEE," which makes her sound French. Oh, and one day at the park a baby who was born one day before Leo said, "BABY!" to him.

And now guess who's saying it. Yes, at 15 and 3/4s, Leo now says, "BABY!" And he says it the French way too--"Bay-BEE" with the accent on the "BEE." He always says it when I get out his Yo Baby yogurt because there's a baby on the container. Yesterday, at the zoo, he said it to a kid who had to be pushing two. He had a bowl haircut and there was Leo with his barely-there-hair saying, "Bay-BEE!" We pretended like we didn't notice.

I don't have any videos of him doing this but I do have some cute pictures from the zoo: