I likened those times of caring for DD before she could speak English to having to care for a little old woman from Brazil who couldn't walk or talk or feed or toilet herself. I had to carry her everywhere and take care of her every need, without the benefit of a mutual language. Maybe everyone could look at a baby this way, but it really felt like DD understood the world as well as I did, like an old lady.
lovely! I used to pretend that preverbal DS was an adult alien ambassador from outer space from a friendly group that was encountering earthlings for the first time, and didn't want their superpowers to harm anyone by accident, so they made the ambassador look like a baby with only baby-level outer skills, but inner level adult advanced alien skills. DS seemed to me to play the role pretty well. What fun!
