Me: "That's a rock, Benjamin."
Spud: "Dis?"
Me: "A rock."
[Pause]
Spud: "Dis?"
Me: "Rock."
[Pause]
Spud: "Dis?"
In the parlance of our times, when you get dissed, you get disrespected. Benjamin is always dissing us, but he means no disrespect. "Dis?" ("This?") is his tool for learning the names of the things he encounters. He is constantly pointing at things and dissing. Body parts, things he sees outside the car window, tiny particles of fuzz, things on the TV. "Dis?" "Dis?" "Dis?" He must say "dis", no shit, about 100 times a day. He now has a very extensive vocabulary, all because of his constant dissing. The fact that he pronounces nearly everything wrong once he learns it is not really important. We (usually) understand what he's saying.
We didn't ever really encourage this quest to know nomenclature; it is entirely his own desire to know what's up. We always answer when he asks what something is, so he always gets results. We can tell that he's really proud when he knows the names of things and that he can participate in the conversation a bit. He smiles and points and says, proudly: "Rock!" (Rock) or "Umbugga" (Umbrella) or "Huffwhy!" (Butterfly).
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There are no dumb questions when you are 17 months old. There may be some dumb answers out there sometimes, but no dumb questions. Asking is the quickest way to learn most things and little kids are all about efficiency! My kid brothers and sisters wanted to know things, but I do not recall them being so persistently inquisitive. Smart little guy! Grandpa Chadwick
ReplyDeleteOur OWN kids were very inquisitive, but I don't remember them asking what things were so often. Maybe they just picked up lots of things without asking? Benjamin will know an awful lot really quickly if he keeps this up. Grandpa Chadwick
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