The Doll Hint

Several months ago, a friend sent a link of a home video to his friends on Facebook that he took of his deaf wife and four hearing daughters, with the oldest in elementary school, and possibly the younger two in pre-school, and the last one a baby. They all knew ASL.

At the beginning, the mother, carrying the youngest baby daughter in her arms, signed with one hand to the three girls who were lined in an arc, eagerly watching what she was going to say.

The mother said that the girls would be playing a game similar to the one called "Blue Clues". She hinted that as a surprise someone would be arriving to their house this fall but would not reveal who the person would be. The girls' responsibilities are to find the clues being set up all over the house and collect them.

The video showed some of the locations where the girls excitedly found the clues which were folded yellow stickers. The mother told them to collect them and take to the basement where they all gathered at a table. The last clue was a doll.

With her request, the girls unfolded the stickers and lined them up on the table. The eldest daughter assisted with the re-arranging with the clues, with putting the doll at the end of the line-up.

The videocamera zoomed in to the beginning of the clue and then slowly proceeded to the end of the clue, the doll.

It said: We are going to have a (doll).

The older two girls had a puzzled look as if trying to figure out what the clues meant, especially the doll.

Suddenly, with the mouth agape, the eldest daughter excitedly said "Oh, YOU ARE going to have a baby!!?"

After a moment of silence with the girls trying to look at the mother's tummy, the mother asked the middle daughter what she thought about it and encouraged her to talk about it.

She pondered for a second then shook her head and signed, "Oh no, there's trouble cooommminnn'.....!!"