Oh, No! Oh, No!

Our 21 month old daughter has learned to successfully use the words 'Oh, No!' as a form of communication in every circumstance she encounters. She uses different tones and emphasis in different situations to effectively convey her thoughts and to make you think twice about the fact that she just used the same two words to communicate something else just a few minutes ago.

Today we went for a short walk around the block and she spots a small dog on a leash in a neighbor's yard. The dog is way smaller than our golden retriever, Katie, who is walking with us. Ali looks at the dog, assesses the situation, and says very worriedly, "Oh, no! Oh, no!". I wonder if Katie's ego is shattered in that moment knowing that Ali was concerned the small dog would somehow harm her.

A little further up the road, two children are riding their bikes across the street. She again takes note of the situation and in a stern sort of way says, "Oh, no! Oh, no!". It is almost as if she knows the kids are too young to be riding their bikes without an adult present and is tattling.

A few houses down she sees some flowers planted around a mailbox and says, "Oh, no! Oh, no!" I have come to understand that she likes things in order and all the other mailboxes didn't have flowers around them so this mailbox was out of order in her eyes. She was pointing out the difference to me as if it were an offense.

However, when a big black dog running loose across the street runs over to us, and is sniffing nose to nose with our dog before getting into a heated growling match with each other, Ali watches in silence. There are no 'Oh, No's' in this situation. I wonder why. This is definitely a Oh, no moment. In fact, I'm screaming it silently inside my own head but yet she remains silent.

Things calm down, the aggressive dog is reigned in by his aggressive owners, and we progress on our way, all of which cause Ali to clap her hands in the air and say, "Oh, no! Oh, no!" in a proud, celebratory, relieved sort of way. Go figure!

I'm grateful I'm home everyday to learn these idiosyncrasies about my daughter and to really understand who she is as her own person. Who else would see past her two word use as annoying and instead see a bright and insightful person desperately trying to communicate with the world around her? What a gift for both of us!