When the twins turned one, we got excited since they're able to express themselves more and more. When Joey was one and a half, we heard this weird word he started using - Toots. He'd add it to "Mommy" or "Daddy". He'd say, "Mommy toots" and "Daddy toots" or "Pia toots".
So we'd asked him, "Is Yayi toots?" And he'd say "Toots!" We'd ask him if Nanay was toots and he'd say "No toots." We didn't know what classified as "toots" and "no toots" but Joey knew. And Joey would consistently say a person was toots or no toots but he'd never tell us what made someone toots or no toots. Here are our observations:
- Older individuals (Nanay, Poppop, Bela, Guakong, Guama, Taima) were consistently "no toots"
- People he didn't like or didn't know so well were consistently "no toots"
- It is possible to transition from "no toots" to "toots" without effort on the "no toots" individual
- Transition from "toots" to "no toots" is possible but rare. If you become Toots, it's highly likely you'll always be toots thereafter.
- Joey and Pia have always been toots
- There is currently a scarcity or "no toots" individuals as all the older folks have now been consistently classified as toots.
More study is required to figure out what toots means. Joey will not spill the beans. I suspect he's even forgotten what toots means.
We no longer ask him if a person is toots or no toots but it remains one of the questions we still don't have any answer to and it's highly likely we'll never get an answer to that question.
No comments:
Post a Comment