Via the NaNoWriMo boards I have discovered Think Geek, a site devoted to paraphernalia to make you an uber-geek. The scariest section is the “Caffeine” section (also the section highly coveted by Nanoers). Caffeinated chocolate! Caffeinated lip balm! Caffeinated soap! (Right. Like anyone who needs these products takes showers.)

Although the caffeine mug has its attractions…

No, no, I’m going to stay strong! I’m going to get a 16 ounce NaNo mug!

One of the celeb stories going around right now is about Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter’s multilingual abilities:

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s baby daughter can speak Spanish. .

The Hollywood actress has revealed Apple’s first word was ‘Agua’ – Spanish for ‘water’ – and says she is trying to teach her even more.

Gwyneth said: “‘Agua’ was her first word. She says a lot of words in Spanish, I speak to her in Spanish sometimes because I want her to learn”.

Now, I don’t know if Ms. Gwyneth has a nanny or not, or where she and her family live. But this reminds me of a funny thing I noticed about the babies in Los Angeles.

They all said “agua.”

Sophia said it for the longest time. She had a nanny who used it. I admit that the first time I heard her say it I became a bit worried: was I not spending enough time with her? I wanted her to be comfortable with Spanish, but this was ridiculous!

But then I noticed her friend Lucy also said it. Lucy didn’t have a nanny. She did once in a while go to a drop-in daycare run by a Spanish-speaking lady. But it wasn’t a regular thing at all, so Lucy wasn’t exposed to Spanish a lot.

Her friend Calvin said it, and Calvin was never away from his English-only mother until the day she went into the hospital to have another baby. Of course, he had his friends who were saying “agua,” so he must have picked it up there.

My theory is that “agua” may be easier to say than “water” (because of the “t” stop).

Anyhow, I mention this anecdote only to say: Gwyneth, it might not mean anything. Really.

(You get to blame Darin for the title to this one, by the way.)