Tags
babies, language, living in the now, motherhood, parenthood, speech, thought, toddlers
Owl and I are taking our evening bath. He’s a little overtired, on account of taking an unusually early nap that day. In order to calm him down I hold him on my arms and lay him on his back, with my chin resting gently on his head and my arms around his scrawny little chest. We breathe deeply together for a while, and Owl seems to become fascinated with this new view of the shower head and the shower caddy above us.
Owl: Deesh? *points upwards*
Me: What do you see?
Owl: Deesh. O? P? Q? Deesh!
Me: I don’t know what deesh is. I see the shower head, and the caddy, and the soap bottles, and my razor, and the loofah, and the wall, and the shower curtain…
Owl: Deesh! DEESH! Up? A… B… C… I… J… Deesh? *points again*
Me: Tell me more.
Owl: O… P… Q… Esh… Deesh? WOW! Yeah. Deesh? Up? UP! Deesh!
Me: What’s “deesh?” Do you mean “this”?
Owl: Yeah.
Me: Do you mean “what’s this?”
Owl: No.
Me: You don’t mean “what’s this?”
Owl: No.
Me: Just “this?” Only “this?”
Owl: Yeah. Yeah. Deesh.
Me: Only this.
Owl: Deesh.
He heaves a contended sigh and we lay there snuggled together, staring upwards, and thinking about Only This.
