Lesson learned: check your facts before arguing with a two year old

It comes as no surprise that you LOVE animals. Most of your first words were animals. It's the only thing you can hold a conversation about. You even have an active imagination and a friendly elephant by your side at all times. You have never ceased to amaze me how quickly you pick up on anything animal related. So, with all this being said, I shouldn't have found myself in the following situation to begin with, but I did.

A week or so a go you were doing anything to get my attention, and once you had it you would repeat "o-cup-ee!" I thought for sure you meant "a cup please." So I handed you a cup. You only started repeating it more quickly. "o-cup-ee, o-cup-ee, o-cup-ee!" When that didn't work, I found more cups. Now you were not only repeating quickly, you were doing so more and more loudly. I want nothing's more than to help encourage you to use your words and I was failing to understand what you so desperately were wanting me to know. When I had given you every cup with every different kind of drink in it and you were still not satisfied, I gave up. I figured you were ready for a nap and it was over.

Well, it didn't end there. Before going to bed the other night you were at it again, "o-cup-ee!" This time you were showing me a book of African animals. You were pointing to an animal that resembled a brown horse with zebra striped legs. I tried to explain to you that it wasn't a cup, it was a horse with zebra legs. This response was not good enough. I then found myself in an argument with you

Gage: "O-cup-ee!"

Mom: "No, zebra horse, it's a horse with zebra looking legs!"

Gage: "Haha no, o-cup-ee!"

Back and forth and back and forth, you thought it was so much fun. We laughed and argued for a few minutes. I didn't know how else to describe to you in terms you would understand what I was seeing, and clearly you were unable to do the same. I finally pulled out the iPad and searched what we were looking at.

An "Okapi" is a distance relative to the giraffe.

Wow, I screwed up. Turns out I don't need to talk to you like my baby anymore. You understand way more than I give you credit for. I love that you love to learn, and I love that occasionally you will let me hold you while you tell me all about the animals you find in EVERY single book.

 Don't ever stop learning.