Q & A

Mia constantly surprises us with new words and phrases that seem to come out of nowhere. A sampling:
"I need some kind of help here."
"Sam [our dog] not listening. That's frustrating."
"She's a dumb dumb dog."
"Not going to church today."
"I want to go out to eat."

Clearly, these things do not come out of nowhere. Mia is so good at ignoring me when I'm asking her to do something, sometimes I forget she is listening to us all the time.

She has also entered that phase where she asks the same questions over and over. It doesn't matter how many times we answer the question, she asks it again, as if she:
(a) Became temporarily deaf and didn't hear our answer.
(b) Didn't believe our response.
(c) Is testing us to see if she'll get a different answer next time.
(d) Just plain enjoys asking the question, especially if we start sounding exasperated.

I think we can rule out (a). I suspect it is a combination of (c) and (d). A few questions Mia likes to ask over and over:

Mia: "Why is she dumb?" [Referring to the dog.]
Me: "I don't know." OR "Mia, that isn't a nice thing to say. Mommy shouldn't say it, either."
Mia: "Why is she dumb?"
Mia even went so far as to ask her swimming teacher Miss Whitney, "Why is she dumb?" Oh, do I wish I'd never called Sam a dumb dog.

Mia: "What happened to Curious George's finger?"
Me: "He stuck it in the water at the aquarium, and a crab bit him. He shouldn't have put his finger in there, should he?"
Mia: "What happened to his finger?"

Mia: "Where's Miss Diane?"
Me: "I don't know. She is probably at home. You are in another class now, so you have a different teacher."
Mia: "Where's Miss Diane?"

Mia: "What happened to her foot?" [The hand-me-down Loving Family mother figurine has a chewed-up looking foot.]
Me: What do you think happened to her foot?
Mia (with a big smile): A dog chewed it!

My former colleagues might find it a bit surprising that it took me so long to remember the trainers' time-tested technique of lobbing the question that is not really a question back to the wise-guy who asked it.