The Word of the Day Is...

No. No no no, no no. 

If I were to analyze and catalog the speech patterns of this particular tribe of "Les Enfant" I would find the scales tip heavily toward the word 'no'.  That's not to say it is the predominant word of choice, but it is the overwhelming front runner in the category of "Answers Given Immediately to Any Number of Varied Questions".  If this was a category on Jeopardy I would sweep that category hands down.

It was because of this speech pattern, that is so divergent from normal adult human speech, that I decided to begin a subset within my research of their speech.  This research will mainly concern Dash, as Small One has yet to develop basic conversational skills and simply cannot keep up on any subject whether it be politics, art, or 'what is this object'.

Today I focused on testing Dash's seeming favorite word, or answer as the case may be.  Here are some examples of my research testing on the basic usage of the word 'no' to "Les Enfants".

A)  Me: Dash, would you like take a nap?
      D: NO!
This first test was merely a control group.  A question that I am fairly to mostly sure that he would answer with the negative "no".  Naps are not a prized commodity among "Les Enfant" as you know by my previous journal entries.

B)  Me: How about clean your room?
      D: No.

C)  Me:  Would you like to have some ice cream?
      D: No...uh, yeah!
With this response he wasn't even looking at me.  His gut reaction, his standard response was "no".  I thought that I could end it right there that his ready position was "no", but with the first two questions both being assumed "no" answers I had to make sure he wasn't finding out a pattern.

D)  Me: Would you like to watch a movie?
      D:  Yes. 
A twist.  It seems there are some subjects that will get a first time answer of an affirmative "yes".  But that still means that on an unconscious level, his ready made answer is still "no".

I decided to go rapid fire to find a pattern, if there was in fact one to be found.

Me: Wanna go outside?
        Wanna clean your room?
        Wanna go to the store?
        Wanna play with your sister?
        Wanna popsicle?
        Wanna go to the dentist?
         Wanna build a snowman?

Dash: No
          No
          No
          No
          N...Yes
          No
          Olaf!!

Didn't expect that last one.  More research to continue this week.