Toddler questions – What’s that?

It’s started.  It’s taken a while coming considering N’s been chattering away nonstop for some months now, but the toddler questions have arrived.

I was expecting lots of why’s, but we’ve not had that yet.

Instead N’s new favourite phrase is ‘wassat?’.  Translated into English that means ‘what’s that?’.  It reminds me of the Budweiser ad for some reason

I thought I’d be quite patient with the questions when they arrived.  I remember answering one of the nephew’s questions one day, and loving the fact I could just spout absolute rubbish and he’d never know!  But after only a few days of the same question, it’s driving me insane.

It seemed funny at first, and all was fine, but does he really want to know ‘what’s that?’ (it’s usually something he knows already what it is), or is he just wanting to hear me struggling to work out what he’s actually asking about.

Most of the time he’s not pointing to anything, he’s just asking the question.  It’s as though he just likes the sound of the phrase and wants to wind me up, asking it again and again about the same item.

He also likes ‘What you doin?’.  That reminds me of Joey Tribiani in Friends (ok, so that’s ‘how you doin’? but the way N says is sounds similar!).

I really hope he moves onto ‘why?’.  I was prepared for that one, and then I can continue building on the answer, feeding a little at a time.  With ‘what’s that?’, what’s he after?  A full on description, or an explanation of why it is what it is?

Not that N seems that worried if I don’t answer at first.  He’ll just continue asking in the way that toddlers do.

Surprisingly, his dad seems more patient at the questions than me.  I was explaining what N had been asking, again and again, and his dad told me ‘he’s fine’.  Obviously he’s fine, and it’s only a stage (although I’m preparing for it to be a long one), but then I’m the one he asks, not his dad.

It seems I’m now going to have to start working on the interrupting thing as well…could be a long process given how much N likes his own voice from all the talking he does.