"I Don't Know!"

Ella is doing well with her words these days. She'll point things out and say them: Dewey, ball, Mama, Daddy, Poppy (just the other day, Poppy), duck, dog, cat, poop, etc.. At this point her recognition is much better than her language. Ask her to find something, bring it to you, or just point it out and she's on the money. For example, before a meal I say, "Ella, go get a bib." And she disapears around the counter and comes back with a bib (and then runs screaming towards her highchair because she seems to always be starving!). Or "Ella, go get Daddy a book and we'll read." And she runs to the book shelf grabs a book and plants herself in your lap. Sometimes she goes and gets 4 or 5 books before she really settles down, but that's OK.
So, all of this talking and language recognition is amazing and wonderful and very impressive! Right? Unless she's been attacked by the "I don't know" monster. From time to time, no matter how easy the question, and often to question after question, the answer is a shrug of the shoulders, arms turned out with hands pointed up, and adumbfounded look. As if she's forgotten all she knows. Just like this:


She thinks it is so cute. I think it is cute and a little frustrating. Don't you just hate to see a brilliant women act dumb just to be cute? Let 'em know how smart you are and make them deal with it, Ella Bean!!!