sure

Not just one word, but a whole slew of them: the sures.

There is the simple SURE--- for quick agreement, for simple assertion.

The SUUUURE--- when she's being a little silly, the smile playing just at the ends of her lips.

There is SHORE--- the answer to my more serious requests, like when I ask her to please pick up the 1,250 pony beads she lovingly threw around her room, into every single sticking corner, and even when my voice was starting to wobble with irritation as I demanded she PICK UP THESE BEADS, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. RIGHT NOW. She smiled, licked her lips, and said shore.

But my favorite, the one that is so weirdly quintessentially all Bean: SHOW-WAH--- elongated and exaggerated, like some 3-year-old New Yorker. Reserved for the most excited and outrageously exuberant agreements. Like, "Would you like a piece of chocolate cake?" SHOW-WAH! Or, "How about we sit down and watch Scooby Doo together?" SHOW-WAH! Or this one, yesterday morning, when I showed her an overnight creation that I had to finish because it had both pom-poms and ric rac AND tulle.

"Bean, would you like to wear this today?"

Nothing less than

SHOW-WAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!