Huh?

Green Bean finds a black fold-up mirror in my purse and it's now his cell phone. All his conversations are alike.

"Hello? Oh. Me doing well. And you? Oh, okay. Bye."

I didn't even realize I said, "I'm doing well, and you?" all that often, but apparently I do enough that he's caught on. Another phrase he picked up, presumably from me, is the question, "What's wong?" Only he uses it essentially in any situation whatsoever, as if it meant, "What's up?" It's one of those questions that drives me up the wall, at least when I'm asked it 32 times a day, so I've resorted to answering it with a parry right back to him, "What's wrong with YOU?"

It hasn't deterred him AT ALL from using it. He also says, "Huh?" after almost everything I say, compelling me to repeat myself. I can't seem to break him of that habit, either. He informed my mom a few weeks ago that "Mommy not weally like it when I go like that, 'huh?'" So he knows how I feel about it, but I think as long as it elicits a response from me (and I can't seem to help myself...it's automatic to repeat myself when asked, and I can't seem to maintain a conscious effort to NOT respond long enough to make him realize his "Huh?" is inneffective) he'll keep using it. Probably it's a benefit to his linguistic development or something. He gets to hear everything twice and really GET what I'm saying.

Overall, though, I love his developing conversational skills. I love hearing a surprising new phrase, a way of using words he's never mastered before, come out of my three year old's mouth in an unexpected way. It's a random sprinkling of amusement and pleasure in out-of-the-blue moments of my day.