Amakena

When Allison was learning to speak, she latched on to a new word one day that had us all stumped. "Amakena," she demanded from her car seat. We looked at her blankly. Amakena? uh-MAW-ken-ah? What on earth? So we ignored her. "Amakena," she shouted. "Amakena!"

"What?" We looked around. Toy? Blanket? One of the kids? Each item we tried, she shook her head furiously. It was clear that she thought we were either amazingly dense or deliberately obstructive. "AMAKENA!" she shrieked, and came perilously close to a tantrum. We kept trying other things--a bottle, a cookie, but all to no avail.

And then someone turned on the CD player. "Amakena," Allison sighed, and settled in happily. "Amakena."

We could never figure out what word Allison thought she was saying when she said Amakena, but we interpreted it to mean "music," and music it remains to this day. So when you see Allison drifting around with her iPod hooked to her ears, or at her computer with her headphones on, you know what she's listening to: amakena.