"Nye-nye, beesh."

Every night since Ava was 6 months old and has had just two teeny front teeth, we have carried out a bedtime tooth-brushing routine. This routine includes brushing while I sing a silly song about "brushing them everyday to keep cavities away," rinsing our toothbrush under some running water, Ava shaking her brush vigorously and finally putting the toothbrush "to bed" on the sink's countertop. Stefan and I always say, "Night-night, brush," before leaving the bathroom and continuing on with other bedtime festivities. Well, during the past week or so, Ava has started saying night-night to her toothbrush as well, although her version is far more precious than ours. The other night, for the first time, Ava repeated our "Night-night, brush" with a soft, sweet, "Nye-nye, beesh!" And I don't know how, but Ava has somehow picked up on a slight southern drawl along with her words, so add a little twang to the "Nye-nye" and you pretty much have it down. It was one of those moments when I wanted to laugh, cry and eat her up all at the same time. She kept repeating it because she discovered she had just learned some new vocabulary, and we just loved it.