Ducks, Ducks, Ducks...

I hate it when people repeat things. Whether it's someone trying to get my attention by saying my name over and over, or that guy on the radio talking about the event on "Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!", I hate it when people repeat things. Unfortunately, my son is at that age. To him, if it's worth saying once it's worth saying ONE BILLION TIMES. In ever increasing volume too. One Saturday morning I asked Eli what he wanted to do. He said, "ducks!" so we drove to Lake Pflugerville to feed the ducks. He kept saying, "ducks, ducks" during the entire drive. Then, when we got there, he started saying, "ducks, DUCKS!" while we went in search of the ducks that were nowhere to be found. After a short, duckless search, I decided we'd go to another lake that always has ducks so we got back in the car. Do you know how many times a two-year-old can say “duck” between Pflugerville and Wells Branch? The answer is more than 46 times, because that's when I stopped counting. We walked all the way around the pond that always has ducks to find out that the pond in fact does not always have ducks. It did however now have a two-year old in a Superman hat holding his daddy's hand and looking up at anyone passing by and saying, "ducks? Ducks?" Since the only thing anyone ever responded was, “what’s up, Superman?” I assume they didn’t know where the ducks were either. Or that Eli saying ducks sounds like, “what’s up?” I finally gave up on the duck hunt, and told Eli we were going home. I guess he realized we weren't going to see any ducks when we got back in the car, so he stopped asking for them. He did however decide to point out every "car, car" he could spot. There were a lot of cars on the road. My wife says I shouldn’t be so annoyed with Eli’s repeating since it’s just a linguistic development stage. I said, “Is it? Is it? Is It?!” Comedic repetition isn’t always fully appreciated However, even I can appreciate Eli’s repetition when it’s comedic. A lot of this stage involves Eli saying something he wants until someone figures out what he’s talking about. For example, he’ll say, “malk, malk, malk” until I realize he’s asking for milk. So it’s hilarious, albeit seemingly uncouth, when he tells someone to sit because he says, “chit, chit”, while tapping the place he wants them to sit with his hand. (Say it three times fast out loud and you’ll get it.) Of course, it is a stage and will pass by soon. Since this stage appears to exist for the sole purpose of annoying me, you’d think I’d be ready for it to go. But I have to admit I’m going to be sad when it’s over. Because that means when I come home from work, I won’t get greeted by Eli squealing, “Daddy! Daddy!” And that’s one repetition even I love.