You'd smile too if someone talked to you like a minature poodle on helium

Soon after Ella's birth, our house was filled with high-pitched terms of endearment. Drew picked up Parentese faster than Noshawn moves a football down the field. Never has a baby girl been so delighted with a bearded man speaking in a falsetto voice, as Ella is with her Daddy. I however, tended to go from high pitched helium to a Mr. T impersonation. Parentese, is the language that all people speak to babies in. I mean all people, across the globe, see a baby and speak an octave higher and draw out their vowels like they are from south Georgia. Preschoolers do it with younger siblings and here I am speaking like a large man with a mohawk. I pity the Ella. Lucky for me Ella did some coaching. Smiley face when I spoke high-pitched, worried-about-how-many-of-her-Mama's-genes-she-got face when I spoke Mr. T. Since I would eat beets covered in licorice and black pepper, something I would not do if it gave me magical powers and a photographic memory, to see Ella smile, my training moved along pretty quickly. Now if she could only teach me how to beat Drew at checkers.