Charades with a 22-month old.

Mateo is talking more and more, starting to string words together (momma eat, feet kick ball, ball bounce, take it, etc.), and is getting more and more frustrated with his obviously stupid mother who doesn't understand what he wants.

My kid knows what he wants when he wants it. He's always been like that, and I have to assume he always will be that way. And I think that's great because he may actually become someone really special in this world. I want him to feel comfortable asking for what he wants and needs instead of quietly peering at adults, wondering if he should open his mouth. I want him to take chances so he can fail at times and then learn how to get over failure and move on. I want him to always try and always know he's worth it - whatever the "it" may be.

And with all that, I'm at his mercy when he wants something and I can't, for the life of me, figure out what it is he's saying.

The other day he really wanted to hear a specific song. He's got a few CDs, and the only songs he really knows are nursery rhymes, so I put on each nursery rhyme and waited for his approval. None of them were the songs he wanted. Well, I thought, I'll just buy him a CD full of nursery rhymes. I got on Amazon, found a $4 CD, ordered it, it arrived on Monday, and on Tuesday I put that baby in his CD player, hit the play button, and expected, foolishly, to be greeted with a very happy child.

At first he was very happy. I think the first song on the CD is "Wheels on the Bus," and he knows the song well and does all the motions while it plays. He also seemed tickled that kids were singing the song.

That all soon faded, and he started looking at me imploringly and saying, "Blalahdheh shehehs jememe."

"What?" I asked.

"Blalahdheh shehehs jememe," he repeated.

"I'm sorry, baby, I don't understand you," I said. To say I wasn't disappointed that he wasn't just dancing around like a little goofball because of his new CD would be a big lie. Really, what I was thinking was, Ugh, not again....

He began to frantically attack the CD player, trying to press any and all buttons. I assumed he wanted to fast forward until the song he wanted was on, so I sat down and manned the forward button while he kept adjusting the volume (I think he thought he was fast forwarding).

"This one?" I asked.

"No, no, no," he replied.

"This?" I asked.

"No, no, no," he said.

Whenever a song came on that he knew well, he would stop and look at me and wiggle his butt back and forth, but then he went right back to attacking the volume button.

I got to the end of the CD, and sadly, we never found the song he wanted. That CD is full of all the nursery rhyme hits too. All except one.

He looked at me and said, "Down?" He then bent down and touched his toes.

I looked at him while he did that and kept thinking, down, down, down, what the heck song talks about going down?

"Wait a minute," I said as I snapped my fingers. "You want to hear....what's it called...."Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!"

"YEAAA!" he yelled.

That song wasn't on the CD, nor is it on any CD we own. One of his toys plays it, but I figured that wasn't going to float with him. Then I remembered The Wiggles' DVD Mateo's benefactor (my boss) gave him. They sing that song on it.

I explained to him that the CD didn't have that song, but we could go into the living room and listen to it there. He looked at me like, My god, she still doesn't get it! How have these people been keeping me alive all this time - they are so stupid!

I then mentioned "Wiggles," a term that got him all goofy and excited (they listen to The Wiggles at daycare), and so we headed into the living room.

I put the DVD on, went right to that song and played it. I fully expected Mateo to be so happy that I figured it out and now he's getting what he wanted, and looky us playing toddler charades, that I got my Flip camera ready to shoot some super cute videos of him singing and dancing to the song.

Mateo just stood there.

Nothing. No smile, no movement, no singing. Just staring.

"No, no, no, no," he said after a few more seconds passed by.

I still don't know what he wanted to listen to. We ended up watching The Wiggles DVD from the beginning, but when it got to that particular song again, he told me, "No, no, no," so I skipped it.