Play it again, seahorse

V has a little seahorse toy that our friends gave her. If you push its stomach, it plays lullabies. This toy is part of our nighttime ritual. Vera listens to the songs while she cuddles with her night-night bear. It usually works like a charm, and she falls asleep within minutes. A couple of nights ago, the songs stopped playing, and I heard silence, so I assumed V was sleeping. Then I heard a series of "No, no, no, no, no" from her room. And then "Duck, duck, duck, duck." Then "No duck, no duck, no duck, no duck." All of this came out in a very sad and desperate little voice. When I went to check on her, V was pressing her hand against the seahorses's belly, trying to get it to play its songs again. V indicated what she wanted me to do: to get the songs to play over again. When I complied, she soon feel asleep.

A couple of days ago, I made claims that V was doing something syntax-y with her language. I would say that this is another example. Obviously, V doesn't know the word seahorse, nor does she know the word play or again. She doesn't know how to say "Play the seahorse again," so she was using the words she knew and that seemed to apply. In this case, the seahorse was a "duck," and she was telling me "no," as in, "The 'duck' (seahorse) is not playing."

Well, it probably goes without saying that I thought this was fabulous. Here is another example of a small child with a limited lexical repertoire using whatever words she can to get what she wants. OK, so she called her seahorse a duck, but that's still pretty damn good! She could have called it "dog" or "cat" or any of the other words she knows, but the concept of "duck," obviously, was the closest word she had for this particular object.

A few days ago she started calling me "mammaly/mammala." Now the same pattern has extended to her dad; she calls him "pappala."

Another interesting point is her learned social behavior. V already loves to "feed" her baby with a toy bottle, and she likes to pretend to eat and to feed us as well with her toy forks, spoons, etc.