About 3 months ago, Jacob began saying “Aidan” (it came out more like: ayyyydn) and “Baby” (which was baaaaby and baybay). We thought it was absolutely adorable. I would look at him and say “Ayyyyyyyyydn!” and he would laugh and giggle and my heart would melt. Cherise and I wondered why he kept saying “baby” and who the hell Aidan was. After all, he doesn’t have any friends named Aidan.

Being of the belief that we are all souls inhabiting bodies (feel free to argue this point, but know that you will never change my mind), we just figured that maybe Aidan was a friend of his from his last lifetime who had a huge impact on him and so he was remembering Aidan. Makes sense, no? (again, if you’re  atheistic or agnostic or just a plain I-only-believe-we-live-once kind of person, you probably think I’m nuts and that’s ok – you have every right to believe what you want)

Anyway, my mom’s in town visiting (which is why I haven’t posted in a while) and she was laughing at the whole “Aidan” and “baby” thing. She was talking to my sister (who, at this point might be the smartest of all of us) and she was like “I don’t get it, he keeps saying ‘Aidan, Aidan’ who the hell is Aidan?”

My sister calmly and matter-of-fact said: “Uh, Adam… It just sounds like Aidan.” We were all dumbfounded. I was most dumbfounded of all. How did he know my name? We always refer to me as daddy or dada.

And then it hit me.

Cherise calls me Adam. He must have heard her and picked up on it. Smart kid. (this also led to me realize that I really need to watch what I say, as he truly is a sponge…)

Now he calls me dada, daddy, daddam and Aidan.

I know. You’re wondering why he says baby. We wondered too.

And then it hit me.

Yep. You guessed it. I call Cherise “babe” and “baby”.

I was as horrified as you probably are now.

My son calls his mom “baby”.

Don’t worry, I already started saving up for therapy.