It makes sense not to swear around your toddler. She picks things up. She mimics you. She said “geez kid” the other day after you said, “Geez, kid, stop climbing into the bathtub.” She learns words you don’t even teach her. Like “farmer’s market,” and “soy sauce,” and the lines to “Scarborough Fair.”

It’s eerie, is what it is.

She shouts, “See you guys!” when friends leave. What the heck happened to “bye-bye”? And her latest copycat-ism: “Indeed.”

You didn’t even know you were saying it, did you? Who says, “Indeed” anymore? But it  must be you. You’d notice if Husband was saying it. So you ask her if she’d like more milk. “Yes, indeed,” she says. How about some goldfish crackers? you ask. “Goldfish…crackers…indeed,” she says, weighing each word carefully, as if they were vowels on Wheel of Fortune. Did we see a dog yesterday? you ask. “Dog indeed.”

Where is my child? you want to ask. Why are you running around sounding like you swallowed a book of Jane Austen fan fiction? Come back, little Z! Come back!

You’ve been paying attention to what you say now, searching for that “indeed.” The one that jumped out of your mouth and created an indeeding indeeder. Haven’t found one yet.

Puzzling indeed.

Oh, because I’ve been watching it over and over again (Z is obsessed with the Sienna family now), here’s a link to the Swagger Wagon music video from Toyota. I don’t drive a Toyota, nor do I have any immediate plans to go out and buy a minivan, but this is hilarious.

Come back Friday for my second, very-cool, very nifty author interview, featuring local author and poet Josh Fernandez!