Point, Revisited

My daughter has begun to point. She's 11 months old, and she points at all sorts of things and says, "Dah!" I'm assuming that what she's actually saying is, "Mom, can you please tell me what that may be?" I then proceed to tell her all about it, whether it's a banana or a mirror or a pile of dirty laundry. Sometimes she does this from far away, so I have to guess at what she's finding so interesting, and I think I may have inadvertently misidentified things once or twice. I guess I'll know when she comes home from preschool upset with me after finding out that a turtle and a lamp are not one and the same.

It's kind of fun, though, when I see that little finger start to extend and I have a moment to see what's interesting in a child's eyes. She's definitely found some favorite things. She points at mirrors and animals and photos of people more than anything. We spent half an hour pointing at the family portraits at my grandmother's house, talking about everyone as she would point.

I wish all communication could be so simple. I guess that's where the phrases "What's the point?" and "Get to the point!" come in. With kids, it's pretty straightforward. Question + answer = conversation. No talking in circles or unspoken insinuations like when talking among adults. They don't overanalyze your tone or wonder about hidden meanings. I thing "grown-ups" have a lot to learn from kids.