One of the most amazing things about being the father of an almost-two-year-old is the opportunity to see how the developing mind works. Um, Piper's, not mine.
Last night, she was having a hard time falling asleep. It was past 10:00, and she was still calling out and making noise from her crib in her dark room. Laura finally headed back there and spent some more time with her.
Piper said, "Martan." This is not unusual these days. She's talking a lot, introducing several new words every day, and she's not very good at pronouncing a lot of them. But we always give a good yeoman's effort to understand what she said. So Laura tried:
"Mittens?" she asked.
Piper shook her head, concentrated hard, and said the word again: "Mar .. tan."
"Marta?" asked Laura, referring to the woman who babysits Piper twice a week.
Again, a shake of her head indicated this wasn't correct. So Piper thought for a minute, and then locked eyes on her mom and said: "Gorilla."
"Gorilla?" asked Laura, and this time she got a nod. Perplexing at first. But then Laura traced back through the evening, and remembered the book that Piper and I were reading together before bedtime. There were lots of pictures of animals, and I was pointing at them and asking Piper what they were. At one point, I pointed at a red-haired primate. "What's that?" I asked. She thought for a moment, and then said: "Gorilla." To which I pointed, and said: "Orangutan." To which Piper repeated: "Ran ... tan."
So Mom said to Piper: "Are you saying 'orangutan?'" Piper enthusiastically nodded: "Yes!"
A dumb story, perhaps, but it amazed us. In her desperation to be understood, she asked us to recall something from earlier. By saying "gorilla" to Laura, she was really saying: "Do you remember earlier when I thought something was a gorilla, but it wasn't? That's the word I'm trying to say."
The resourcefulness of a toddler is practically the eighth wonder of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment