Huh?

There are so many habits I have tried to avoid passing on to my child. I realize she listens to very little I tell her directly and picks and chooses from the things I say to emulate. Usually its not the good things.

One of the things I habits I regret the most is Josie's incessant use of the word, "Huh?".

"Josie, can you come here?"

"Huh?" She says engrossed in a particularly riveting part of Dora Saves the Mermaids.

"Josie!"

"Huh?" She says this time looking my way. Her "Huh" was less of an I didn't hear you and more of a what do you want, lady? You have to see the look in her eyes to know the difference.

The first time I noticed it was when we were getting Josie's hair cut. The lady kept asking Josie questions to distract her during the hair cut and Josie, head down and unfamiliar with the lady's thick accent, kept saying, "huh?" At first, like me, the lady thought it was cute, but then she got irritated with it.

"That's so funny, where'd she learn that?" The lady with the thick accent asked me.

"Huh?" I said and then was immediately appalled that I clearly had no one else to blame for the incessant huh's.

Today when was looking for Norm in the super market, she kept repeating "Dad!" and Norm kept repeating, "I'm here" even though neither of us could see him and Josie kept repeating "Huh?". By the tenth time, I couldn't help myself.

"Josie, you have got to figure out something else to say. Like maybe, Dad, I can't see you. Or excuse me, I didn't quite understand you, could you say that again?"

She just looked at me like I was completely bizarre and of course, on cue, said "Huh?" and walked away and yelled for her father again.