What a Doing?

This is what I hear all day: "What a doing, Mama?" (Meaning, "What are you doing"). Eighty five billion times today, I counted. OK, not really. But it's close, I swear. I sit down to eat lunch, I hear: "What a doing, Mama?" I turn on the water and start washing dishes: "What a doing, Mama?" I burp Mary after nursing her: "What a doing, Mama?" I sit down to check my email: "What a doing, Mama?" I sometimes get the question twice right in a row. He gets excited that he already knows the answer, I think. Once in awhile he switches it up on me and puts the Mama first. "Mama, what a doing?"

I knew the "why" question was in my future at some point, I've heard about the poor parents who tear their hair out over it and I'm already prepared with the "because God made it that way" answer that Jeff's cousin cleverly came up with when her first daughter was going through the phase. I have to say I was starting to envy those "why" question parents because the "what a doing" question is pretty repetitive and boring. At least with "why" you have an interesting answer.

But then this afternoon I was standing at the fridge thinking about which meal I planned to cook today for dinner and, of course, I hear: "What a doing, Mama?" When I said "I'm thinking, Nathaniel" he asked, "What's thinking, Mama?"

Ummmm. How does one explain "thinking" to a two year old. Hmm. Can we go back to the "What a doing" question, Nathaniel?