Talk Like a Man: He Who Asks the Question, Holds No Power

The days of blank stares are a thing of the distant past.  I barely remember those times when I would talk to Baby C just to fill the silences.  And for the most part, that's a good thing.  You feel kinda stupid talking like that.
And yes, we've skipped over many different evolutionary changes in our ability to communicate with Baby C.  After those blank stare days came the somewhat-facially-expressive-but-still-verbally-uncommunicative days.  And then there were the babbling days.  Then the monosyllabic days when "ma" and "da" referred to just about everything.  All the while, for the Wife and I, our ability to apply just about any meaning to her "speech" really stretched the boundaries of "interpretation."

It is inevitable that, before we know it, the Baby Chicken will be picking up words at an alarming rate.  And then she'll string them together into sentences, which will eventually become an endless output string of questions as she voraciously absorbs information about the world around her.

In the meantime, though, we are in a unique phase: a semi-conversational declarative-interrogative phase, which stands in stark contrast to the previously mentioned phase that involves Baby C asking all the questions. You see, this is how it goes.  Baby C will babble, and everything she says (occasionally mixing in an actual word) will be stated as fact.  And when the Wife and/or I hear this, we will suddenly notice that she is doing something dangerous, daredevil-ish, and/or forbidden in our household and be compelled to ask her a question.

For example:
"How did you get up there?"
"Where did you go?"
"What's on your hands?"
"Why is The Booger whimpering?"
"Who turned on the dishwasher?"
"Why am I locked out of the bedroom?"
"How did you fit all those grapes in your mouth?"
"Where is my phone?"

And then she will look at us, and cheerfully exclaim, "Bah!"  That, or she will run away giggling and squealing.