I remember when I was a kid I’d have thousands of questions to ask my Dad each day. I can’t remember exactly what the questions were, but I know I had a couple thousand of them.

Now Joana is at the age where shes just starting to talk and has found out how to question. She has only one question for me every day, and repeats it a thousand times throughout the day.

Who’s this?

The question asks, “What’s this?”, “Who’s this?” and “Why is this?” all at the same time. It also comes out as a single word, “Whosis?”. A very efficient question.

I only wish I could devise such efficient questions and hopefully get just as efficient answers.

With each question, or each instance of “the question”, it would be followed by a point of the finger, a twinkle in the eye, and a face full of inquiry. At that moment, I knew the question was the most important thing in the world.

Amazingly each new instance of the question is just as exciting and just as important.

The best part is when I answer the question. In deep reflection and thought, the world stands still and disappears around her.

For me, it is another 5 minutes of work before the next question, hopefully a different one this time, but as long as “the question” is different for her, it’s fine with me.