Par Condicio

Par condicio

1. An Italian broadcast law guaranteeing equal treatment to all political parties during elections

2. equal treatment; equal opportunity

- from Wiktionary

Par condicio reigns in our house, or at least I try aim for said state when it concerns Peanut.

I'm a Juventus fan and Dad is a Napoli fan? Par condicio. Peanut will be fairly exposed to both teams; Mon Amour and I are in full agreement that she can choose her own team as long as it's not AS Roma. Ha.

I speak Romanaccio, Dad speaks Napolitano. Peanut excels at the Roman exclamatory "Aò"; the Neapolitan "Uè" is a little more challenging for her. Par condicio.

I have gotten in the habit of saying things twice to Peanut; once in Italian and once in English. Par condicio. 

We've started some baby sign language as well, to help her eventually make the connection between both languages as well as be able to do some rudimentary communication with us before she actually starts speaking. The signs for Mama and Papà have yet to be more than something for her to gaze at us in amusement as we make silly hand gestures, but she's imitating the sign for Milk even if she hasn't fully made the connection between making the gesture and then latching onto the Boob Factory.

She seems to have made a connection pretty quickly with "Up", blowing raspberries in an effort to make a P sound and holding her arms out in the vague direction of Mama. Imitating us saying "Papà" is more of the same, double raspberries and a whole lotta drool.

But here is where  I feel like I have failed in my attempts at par condicio: "Mama" is getting to be a pretty regular occurrence in her baby babble, usually when she's upset. I thought it was my imagination until Mon Amour and another couple of our friends confirmed it as well. 

On one hand it's one of those silly contests between parents "Ha, she said my name first." But he's already fretting over not being able to spend as much time as he wants with her due to his working hours and as such I was pushing more on "Papà," hoping that it would be her first intentionally pronounced word.*

So though I know the M sound is easier for babies to pronounce, I feel irrationally guilty whenever I see Mon Amour's face fall a little when she calls for me.

So much for par condicio...


* Her first word (Unintentional Category) was "Boob," heard by both Mon Amour and myself one fussy night when she was just over 3 months old. "Did you just hear...?" "Yeah, she said 'Boob'..."