Voicelessness and Emotional Survival--What is a Wookah?

Micaela, when you were two and a half, we bought two identical goldfish which we placed in a small plastic fishbowl that sat in the middle of the kitchen table. One fish you named Mommy and the other, Daddy. Of course, as soon as they began to swim around, it was impossible to know which was which. One day (a few months later) we came home from the grocery store only to find one fish floating belly up at the top of the tank.

"Soooo...," I said, dipping my hand into the tank to scoop up the dead fish, "Who's left?"

"Mommy," you said with certainty.

"What?" I said. I looked at the fish again to see if it had any any identifying marks. "How do you know it's not Daddy?"

"I know," you said. "It's Mommy."

It was around this time that I first noticed you were a Wookah. What is a Wookah? You have asked me many times, but my answers have always been incomplete.

First let me tell you what a Wookah is not, just so there is no confusion. A Wookah is not a Wookie, which we all remember to be a large, but friendly beast from the Star War movies. While sometimes you make the same noise as a Wookie, particularly when doing your homework, you are nothing at all like a Wookie.

What then is a Wookah? First of all, a Wookah is a child whose knowledge of the world belies their age. Take this example:

When you were one and a half years old you were walking
Page 2