A Failure to Communicate

Miss M and I were walking today, on our way to do an errand, and she was explaining her day at school.

"And then we xxxxzed,"  she said, but I couldn't understand her.  She speaks clearly most of the time, but occasionally a word crops up that I can't make out.  "You did what?"

"We xxxxzed," she said patiently.

"You walked?"  I said hopefully, knowing that wasn't quite the word.  I stopped and knelt down beside her so that I could listen more closely.

"NO.  We xxxxed.  We xxxxed.  WE XXXXED."  She said, speakly more loudly with each repetition, enunciating as clearly as she could.

In my Spanish lessons, when I don't understand a word, I have to ask for an explanation in other words, and the instructor responds in Spanish.

"Can you explain it to me?"  I said.

"You know," she said.  "You go 'one-two-three,' 'one-two-three.'"

"Oh, you WALTZED."

"Yes, mummy, we waltzed today."

Of course.  How could I fail to understand that my preschooler was waltzing?