And Then…

EBN says so many words now, it’s impossible to keep track.  mama, daddy, nani, p’pa, watch, tattoo, more, all done, elbow, knee, ball, you-name-the-sesame-street-character, park, bubbles, buddy, i could go on.  she can count to 10.  she knows the abcs.  but there is one word that she says over and over and over again that continues to leave us scratching our heads.  she says “d’wah.”  and she says it a lot.

the baby whisperer, aka ABN, argues that d’wah means “what’s that”, and i can get behind that interpretation.  EBN often utters the word when pointing to something.  she says d’wah when we read books and there are many different objects on the page that she would like me to identify.  she says d’wah as she removes the tools from her toy tool box and when she holds up foam letters and encounters one upside so that it’s identity isn’t readily obvious.

but it’s not just that she says, d’wah – it’s how she says d’wah.  the other day she was playing with her cardboard blocks.  first she held up a yellow block, “d’wah?” she asked and i quickly answered, “block.”  while still holding the yellow block in her right hand, she then raised a blue block in her left hand.  ”d’wah?”, she asked again, and i answered – “block.”  she looked at the two, obviously different objects in each of her hands, scrunched her nose stink-face style and again raised the yellow block, “d’wah?”, she asked again, this time with a bit more urgency?  like, give it to me straight, i can take it.  ”block”, i answered again.  blue block, straight in the air, “duuuuh-waaah,” she said slowly as if maybe, i wasn’t completely understanding, as if maybe i was the one who wasn’t making any kind of sense.  ”d’wah, d’wah, d’wah, d’wah,” she repeated over and over and over again.

we are clearly having a bit of a communication problem.

later, ABN came trotting into the kitchen, carrying his laptop with that i -am-oh-so-proud-of-myself look on his face.  ”remind you of anyone?”, he asked:

well, played ABN, well played.