A two year-old talks about “dwimming” in mummy’s tummy.

The day Melissa turned two, her godmother dropped by to celebrate her birthday. Since Melissa was very articulate for her age, her godmother wanted to try an experiment she had about read  in a hospital newsletter. The article stated that if you asked a young child, when they knew enough words to communicate but before they were too old, they could tell you about their life in the womb. So we decided to test this premise.

Melissa was very tiny but smart but she startled people with her clear diction and large vocabulary because the words were coming out of the mouth of such a tiny person. She was standing on a chair behind the kitchen table, playing with a new doll. During the conversation she answered mainly with one word sentences because most of her attention was on her toy.

bit apprehensively; I felt a bit foolish as I asked my daughter, ” Melissa, do you remember when you were in mummy’s tummy?

She answered, “yaaa.”

So then I wondered if she remembered any details, “What was it like?”

Again Melissa could only spare a one word answer,”Warm.”

“What else was it like?”  I questioned. To which Melissa answered quite succinctly, “Dark.”

“What could you see?”, I probed.

Melissa was frustrated  by my dumb question, ” Nothing; it was dark!”

So I scrambled, “What did you do in my tummy?”

Melissa said nonchalantly, “dwimming.”

I checked to make sure I understood her, “Swimming?”

Melissa nodded.

“Did you like living in my tummy?”,  I wondered.

.Melissa nodded again.

Then I thought of a really good question, “Do you remember coming out, being born?”

Melissa scrunched up her nose and sighed, “yaaa.”

“What was it like?”

Melissa stopped playing, looked up and said in disgust, “Like a B.M.!!!”(a bowel movement).

That answer shocked me into silence. I looked over at my sister-in-law and she raised her eyebrows at me and said one word, “Wow.”