superlatives all around
Nov. 29th, 2013 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aryanhwyGwen's new linguistic thing lately has been adjectives and adverbs. It wasn't a bear that she saw in the hotel lobby, it was a "big bear" or a "polar bear". The dress she's wearing in that photo is not just a dress, it's her "pretty dress". (I'd bought it for the wedding; she didn't get to wear it very long due to going to bed so early, so when she refused the shirt/pants I'd picked out for her and asked for that instead ("Nein! Pretty dress!"), I figured it was OK). This morning when I had to wake her, again by whispering in her ear "do you want to get dressed and go outside?" ("outside" seems to be the magic word to get her to wake up instantly), she responded "pretty dress!" I managed to dissuade her with the option of a new shirt, one in which she proudly marched chest thrust forward into daycare this morning, ready for the acclaim she knew would be coming (and which, since daycare teachers know their target audience, did). "New" is of course in common currency, "new diaper!" And sometimes when necessarily, "new underwear!" Speaking of underwear, Gwen received some from her grandparents for her birthday -- she picked out a pair the next day to wear for awhile, and marched into the kitchen announcing: "fancy underwear!" And of course let's not forget her favorite socks, "monster socks!"
Her use of color terms, though, is laughable. She knows the whole range of options to answer the question "What color is this?" but appears to choose her answers blindly, with "red" being the most common choice, and "green" after that.
Somewhat less amusing and more irritating is her recent development of the admonishment "careful!" Once zipping up her PJs I caught her belly briefly in the zipper, and now every.single.time she looks at me sorrowfully and says "careful, careful! careful belly!" She also took it upon herself to be a back-seat driving on our way to Joel's parents last week (and then again on the way to the airport). Whenever we'd go down a large hill or around a steep curve, we'd hear from the back seat, "careful, careful!" She's taken to repeating that now while we bike, particularly over the cobblestones, which had previously never bothered her. There are times I want to snap "I AM being careful" or "quit nagging", but I realize the irony of parent saying that to child, and I don't. And I did have to laugh the other night when she was showing me ornaments on the Christmas tree and daycare and knocked one accidentally, and we both said "careful!" at the same time in the same inflection.
Her use of color terms, though, is laughable. She knows the whole range of options to answer the question "What color is this?" but appears to choose her answers blindly, with "red" being the most common choice, and "green" after that.
Somewhat less amusing and more irritating is her recent development of the admonishment "careful!" Once zipping up her PJs I caught her belly briefly in the zipper, and now every.single.time she looks at me sorrowfully and says "careful, careful! careful belly!" She also took it upon herself to be a back-seat driving on our way to Joel's parents last week (and then again on the way to the airport). Whenever we'd go down a large hill or around a steep curve, we'd hear from the back seat, "careful, careful!" She's taken to repeating that now while we bike, particularly over the cobblestones, which had previously never bothered her. There are times I want to snap "I AM being careful" or "quit nagging", but I realize the irony of parent saying that to child, and I don't. And I did have to laugh the other night when she was showing me ornaments on the Christmas tree and daycare and knocked one accidentally, and we both said "careful!" at the same time in the same inflection.
