Our youngest daughter just turned one a few weeks ago. She is crawling all over the place, and gets into everything. She is becoming very opinionated about what she eats and when she eats it. She is in that transition period from a baby to a toddler.

And I’m not certain I am ready for that yet.

One of the things that she has started to do is pretty amusing though.

She talks.

But she doesn’t speak English. I have no idea what language she is speaking. I can’t understand it. It sounds like gibberish to me. But I’m pretty sure she is saying something specific to me.

It usually happens in the evenings. She gets pretty talkative, and she will look you right in the eye, and say, “Ajija batum dow.” And then she will repeat it. Over and over and over, she repeats it.

If you turn your head away, she will grab the sides of your face and turn you back to pay attention to her, and she will say it again: “Ajija batum dow.”

It can get pretty funny when I ask her, “What did you say?”

“Ajija batum dow.”

“What was that?”

“Ajija batum dow.”

Over and over and over and over. But it is always the same thing. Always. It is very apparent that she is saying something very specific. I just don’t know what it is.

And when I stop listening, she grabs my face and makes me listen.

It is extremely cute and funny.

But it made me think: What about my other kids? How often do they say things that I don’t hear? They don’t grab my face and turn my attention back to them. They just forget about it, and go on.

What does that do to them when I don’t listen? What do they think when I don’t understand?

What can I do to listen to them better? What can I do to listen to them more?

Listening to our kids is important. Sometimes, they may just tell you that an elephant ran through their room and headed for the bathroom, because they needed to go. (Real conversation with my five year old.) And while that may not seem like a big deal, it is to them. It was to my daughter.

When I listened to her elephant tale, she was subtly reminded that I care enough about her to listen to what she had to say. And if I had ignored that, she would have learned the opposite, that I don’t care enough.

And so my goal is to listen more, and to listen better.

So should you.

Be deliberate, Dad!

How well do you listen to your kids? You can leave your thoughts in the comments by clicking here.