"Hi, baby"

Sometime in January, Isaac started saying "hi." (Why does "bye-bye" come so much earlier?) About a week ago he began addressing his greeting to specific people -- we heard "Hi, Mama" and "Hi, Dada," and he even said "Hi, Oma" when my mom called. But yesterday he decided he was instead going to greet me by saying "Hi, baby!"

He says it like a demented French playboy: "Hah, beh-bee." This is especially funny when he romances me as he says it -- he snuggles up close, looks me deep in the eye, and presents his lips to be kissed. I half-expect him to ask me to come with him to the Casbah.

Is Izzy copying what he has heard me say? Could I have said "Hi, baby" to him one too many times? But he said it correctly just a few days ago. Also, he knows very well that I'm mama and he's baby -- that's still what he calls himself. So could he be making a joke? Craig and I did laugh ourselves silly the first time Isaac said it, so we might have encouraged it. I suppose I'm still encouraging it, because it still makes me smile even as I protest, "No, you say 'Hi, mama'!"

The whole thing reminds me of the tollbooth worker a few years back who, when I stopped to hand him five bucks, asked me, "How you doin'?" When I said I was fine, he purred, "I can see that." Then he made me wait a little too long before he handed back my two dollars in change. Yikes. Is that Isaac's future -- calling out "Hey, baby" to unsuspecting passersby?