Hayley was explaining to me about the redecorating:
I tan't fray [spray] Mandy tuz dat's bwocked... Tuz dis ting (the partition) is bwocking de door. Jeff hammered dat. Mandy barks jus like Pongo and Purdey (101 Dalmations) barks.
Daddy, get out from back there! Don't go back there, Daddy. It's not safe for people go back there (Kathy had told her this).
Hayley got a little van to go with her doll-house for Christmas, with a couple of jointed people to sit in it. She and I were playing with it, and we had filled the car with some of the people. Hayley asked me to put another woman figurine in.
D: Well, she won't fit inside; shall we put the Mommy on top of the car? [puts it on the roof-rack] H: No! D: Why not? H: Cos she will fall off. D: Ok. [jams her in with the others, and starts to push the car] H: [getting excited] De door is open! (One of the doors was ajar) D: Oh. Why do I have to close it? H: Cuz de yoyo Mommy (the Mommy with yellow hair) will fall out.This is another case where AI programs would have quite a hard time recognizing the danger, yet very young children see it clearly.
Hayley was looking at some pictures in a Barney magazine of planes and clouds, when she suddenly told me:
H: Nanna is far away in de cwowds. (My mother lives in France) D: That's right, she lives a long way away. H: Nanna is Daddy Mommy! D: That's right, and Grandma is Mommy's Mommy. H: No, no, Dwanma is my fwend! [Grandma is my friend]Another picture in the magazine showed a baby, and next to it (unrelated) was a picture of a vacuum cleaner. Hayley looked at this for a second, and then explained:
Dat baby is cwying fwom de vava teaner, cuz de vava teaner is comin to him. Hedzhe say "Do away, vava!" [He is saying "go away, vacuum!"]As I wrote all this down, she looked at me curiously: "What your dwarwing?"
The people who own our house (we live on the second floor, they on the
first), recently made some changes, adding some walls and knocking some
down. We used to pass by the place where their dog Mandy is kept tied
up; now she is behind a partition. Mandy barks a lot, and we (with her
owners' permission!) have found that spraying a squirt of water at her
will shut her up. Hayley particularly enjoyed doing this
Hayley was explaining to me about the redecorating:
I tan't fray [spray] Mandy tuz dat's bwocked... Tuz dis ting (the
partition) is bwocking de door. Jeff hammered dat. Mandy barks jus
like Pongo and Purdey (101 Dalmations) barks.
Some vocabulary:
draw or write(2) -- dwaw spray -- fray steam -- tseam blocked -- bwocked cloud -- cwowd friend -- fwend safe -- safe bathroom -- bafwoom
She makes some interesting grammatical constructions:
What Pooh has kind shirt? [What kind of shirt does Pooh have?]She peed in her potty today, and proudly announced "Peed! I did it!" We haven't been putting much pressure on her to use the bathroom; I hope it doesn't take forever.
We were playing with play-dough, and I rolled up three little red balls. I put one down:
D: How many balls are there? H: [points at the ball] One, two. D: No, there is just one ball there. [Points] One. D: [Puts down two balls] How many balls are there? H: [Points at the first] One, [points at the second] two. D: Very good, there are two balls. [points at the first], one, [second], two. D: [Puts down three balls] How many balls now? H: [points at the first] One, [points at the second and then the third], two. D: No, there are three there. [pointing,] one, two, three. H: [pointing correctly] one, two, three. D: Very good. [Hides two balls, puts one ball down] How many balls now? H: [looking around] Where'd oner balls go? D: They are in my hand [shows her]. How many balls are on the table? H: One. D: Very good.We did this for quite a while, and she seemed to be grasping the concept a bit better at the end than at the beginning, but it is far from automatic for her. I wondered what would happen if I confused the issue by using different colored balls, so I tried with red and yellow balls:
D: [putting down one red and one yellow ball] How many balls? H: [points] Red, [points] and yoyo. D: That's right, but how many are there? H: [points] One, [points] two. D: Very good. [Puts down another red ball] How many now? H: [points] One, [points] two, [points], three. D: Right! Very good.So the colors didn't seem to perturb her too much.
It seems really amazing to me that she is so skilled in some respects, for example, her memory is astounding --- she remembers the names of characters from dozens of videos and books, even after not seeing them for weeks. Her perceptual abilities are very good --- frequently, she will point at some large area covered with designs (like a refrigerator door) and say "dere's a frog"; in every case, though it may take me quite a while to find it, I find that she was looking at something and correctly identified it. Her motor skills are pretty good --- she dances quite well (a lot better than me!) and can manipulate fairly delicate things. And yet things that seem utterly simple to us, like counting, she doesn't understand. Perhaps what is most surprising is not that she can't do these things, but that she manages so well in her life without needing to. Something I should try is to see whether she is conscious of missing items, e.g., if I put a bunch of her figurines down and then take one when she is not looking, will she notice? From past experience, I think she will even with a fairly large number of items, but it will be interesting to try.
Hayley has recently been exhibiting a behaviour that rather worries us. She has had a cold/flu for the last week or so, with a fever on and off, up to about 102F rectal, runny nose, and cough. Nothing unusual about that, but the last couple of days, when she has woken up in the morning and from her naps, she has been completely unresponsive. We can talk to her, ask her questions, quite insistently, but she just lies there with her eyes open, not reacting in any way. Once, in an attempt to get her to respond in some way, I asked her if she wanted to be tickled (she definitely did not look like she was in a tickling mood). This elicited a very faint shake of her head, but still not a word. In each case, after five or ten minutes, she would gradually rouse, and then start to behave quite normally, though slightly groggy at first. The rest of the time, she seems completely normal. I don't know if this could be an effect of the cough medecine (brometane, which contains DXM, pseudo-ephedrine and some anti-histamine) or whether she is just still half-asleep, but we have never seen her act like this before.
There was an interesting exchange yesterday when I saw Hayley stretching out. She was positioning herself between the stove and the cupboard, in an aerobics warm-up sort of stance; she was flexing her legs and arms, and in fact doing a pretty good job of warming up. I was fascinated by this --- Kathy and I both exercise (most of the time) but the timing makes it such that we almost never stretch in front of Hayley. I don't think her daycare providers do stretching exercises, so I asked her:
D: Where did you learn to do that? H: [didn't really understand] D: Did you see Mommy doing it? Karleen? Renee? [daycare people] H: I shaw dat at Tarween's D: You saw it at Karleen's? H: Yeah, Nick jooonya. D: Nick jooonya? Who's that? H: I shaw dat on tee vee. D: Oh, Nick [Nickelodeon] Junior, on TV? H: Yeah.They really are like sponges at this age, it is amazing what they can pick up.
Before lunch, Hayley was watching one of her Mickey videos, and was very reluctant to stop watching it to eat. After lunch, we went back into the living room, and she really cracked me up:
D: Do you want to watch the Mickey video again? H: Yes. D: [Starts to put it in]. H: (Changing her mind) Ashly, I want to watch Frosty the Snowman. [Actually, I want to watch Frosty the Snowman]
She has an interesting notion of causality, or perhaps it is just that she hasn't got the right words yet. For example, she will often use "cos" to mean "because", but also to mean "in order that", and sometimes confuses "from" with "to":
I don't want hot toz it make me burned. I'm puttin dese here toz dere all yined up. I'm puttin dat dere toz I don't want dat to det burned to de hot. [I don't want hot (water) because it will burn me. I'm putting these (figurines) here (on the side of the tub) so that they are all lined up. I'm putting that (figurine) there because I don't want it to get burned from the hot (water)].She is very interested in reasons for things now; many of her sentences involve "because":
I puttin dat [cloth] unnerwater toz I wanned to wash my arm toz it tovered in shoap.
cut -- tutt also -- awtso her -- her underwater -- unnerwater what? -- what?
I DON'T yike my Daddy. I DON'T yike my Mommy eider.It was pretty funny, but I can tell that that kind of thing is going to start making me feel bad soon, even though I know it doesn't mean anything!
Every evening now, she calls me in while she is rocking with Kathy, to tell me the little rhyme she learned (she gets the hand movements roughly right):
Dis is de church. Dis is de steeple. Open de doors, And see all de people!
She really doesn't like getting the sun in her eyes --- the other day she wanted me to come in and get her a book: "I tan't det dat book cos de sun will poke my eyes!"
can't -- tan't poke -- poke [the sun "pokes" her eyes] because -- cos ringing -- winging [de phone is winging] juggle -- juggle glow-worm -- dwow-worm zip -- zip right there -- wight derw Karlene (2) -- Tarleen either (2) -- eider Christmas -- cwimshuss tree -- twee
On Sunday, we went to a birthday party for a friend of hers, Jenna, at
Fantasy Land. Hayley was a bit
nervous at the rides at first, but by the end we could hardly drag her
away. The idea of these amusement places still strikes me as being a
bit automated (each group does the same thing in the same order, and you
sort of have to go with the flow), but I don't think the kids mind that
much, and it is certainly a lot easier for the parents, and probably
more fun for the kids than what we could organize at home.
We got a Christmas tree this weekend too, and Hayley helped hang the ornaments --- she was actually quite good, and she very much liked the "Cwimshuss twee".
She puts phrases together into more-or-less coherent wholes sometimes, e.g.:
Want your feed me yike a baby. [I want you to feed me like a baby.] First I chew nitz, [First I'll chew this,] den your put dat in my mout. [then you put that in my mouth.] I was at Ayyah's. [I was at Alex's.] I was gettin under my bwanket. [I was getting under my blanket.] It was dark in dere. [It was dark in there.] Jenna and me was scawed. [Jenna and I were scared.] Derzh mahshters in dere. [There are monsters in there.]
The other day she ate two whole large bananas in an incredibly short time. When I noticed that she had already finished the second one, I exclaimed:
D: Hayley, where DO you put them? H: In my mout! Dere hidin fwom you! [In my mouth! They're hiding from you!]When she wants to do something she knows we don't want her to do, she will tell us to go in the other room. She hasn't quite got it down pat yet, though --- if we ask her why, she will tell us!
K: Hayley, don't sit in that box! H: Mommy, go in de kitchen! K: Why? So you can climb in the box? H: Yeah.
More vocabulary:
ski -- tsee
gun -- dun [I don't know how long she has known this; we don't have any
guns in our house :-)]
ladies and gentlemen -- yadies
Lucky -- yucky [one of the 101 dalmations]
Brandon -- Bwandon
write -- write
older -- owder
computer -- pewter
monster -- mahnshter
pen -- pen
She has developed a weird, almost Southern (US), accent recently;
turning schwas into an "aya" kind of sound, like "hayalp" instead of
"help", "payan" instead of "pen". I have no idea where that
is coming from.
She loves the christmas tree lights outside when we drive around at night, and she points them out as we drive by (again and again and again and again!)
Her active vocabulary is at least 400 words now; I think there are quite a lot of words I haven't remembered to write down. Her sentences are getting much more structured, and she uses "ing" correctly most of the time (I don't know grammar vocabulary!) For example, "it's showing" (snowing), "I'm wunning --- want your wun too" (I'm running --- I want you to run too). She gets frustrated sometimes at things she can't pronounce; she was trying to tell me something about Christopher Robin:
Twipa wobin... Twitopha bin... I can't shay Twipa Wobin!
De show eat de poppitt. De show put de poppitt in... in... in... [The snow is eating the (a) popsicle. The snow is putting the popsicle in...] [She apparently wasn't sure whether to say "his" or "her", and finally went with:] ...in de show mout. [in the snow's mouth]
popsicle -- poppitt olive -- awa trouble -- twouble Santa -- Shanta sleigh -- shey swallow -- follow Spot -- Fot land -- yand jeans -- jeans left -- yeft right -- right warm -- wamm saltine -- shorteen noodle -- moodle plate(2) -- pwate Power Ranger(2) -- power wanger juice(2) -- djoots beautiful -- boodoo nighttime -- nighty-night time windy -- windy camping -- tamping cough -- toffSome examples of sentences:
Lying down on the couch:
I tuck in myshelf and yie down and sheep and shore [I am (going to) tuck myself in and sleep and snore]Lining up her figurines on the table; earlier she had asked me to say "hi" to them, and I started to do so again. She responded:
I'm bidzy now. Your not say hi dem now. Ah-ah your say hi dem. [I'm busy now. Don't say hi to them now. After you can say hi to them.]Watching The Little Toaster; the toaster had just exclaimed "Stop it! I'm serious!"
Toh-tsa sheeweeah [the toaster is serious]In a crowded room (I have forgotten where this was):
I'm be shy --- dere be so many people dere. [I'm shy --- there are so many people there]
H: De show tsutz me [The snow ??? me] D: The snow touched you? H: No, no, not touched me, tsutz me. D: Hmm. Sat on you? Settled on you? H: No, no, (clearly struggling to pronounce it better) tsutz me [This went on for quite a few minutes. Finally she stopped and said:] H: Want your say yuv me [I want you to say you love me] D: Of course I love you!Love... kisses... D: Did you mean that the snow kissed you? H: Yeah, de show tsutsz me; de show yuv me.
H: Dews caddapiwwa [Those are caterpillars] D: Caterpillars? Where do you see caterpillars? H: Wight dare! [Pointing to a string of peppers I had hung to dry] D: Oh, not caterpillars --- chili peppers!
I'm want jumpa wope wit you. [I want to jump rope with you] I'm hold dese sticks for you jump wope. [I'll hold these sticks (the handles) so you can jump rope.] I'm jumpa woping! [I'm jumping rope]The fact that she says "jumpa woping" seems to me to show that she has an idea of the general rule of adding "ing", since she surely has never heard anyone else say "I'm jumping roping".
Hayley was watching a Mickey
sing-along video when a song she likes came on (Ole, Ole). She
turned to Barney and told him Look Barney, it oyay! [Look, Barney,
it's Ole!]
H: [looking at the stream of water] No, daddy, no!
D: What is wrong? [long pause while she tries, unsuccessfully, to explain]
D: You don't want the water? [Turns the water off]
H: [Getting very excited] No, I'm don't want dat yidda one,
I'm want dat stwonger! [No, I don't want that little one (stream); I
want it (to be) stronger]
Your not pway my duys anymore. [You can't play with my guys any more] Dat's it! You not listen..., not listen..., not listen my duys! My put dem way in bag.
Do away, sun! Do away, and not visit me!
Hayley is much better now at stacking cups; in April, she had pretty much no idea how to do it. Now she can stack them sometimes --- she starts with one cup, and then takes another. If it is bigger, she puts the first cup in it, and if it is smaller, she puts it in the first cup. She then repeats this process. This works fine as long as each cup she picks up is either the next biggest or the next smallest. She doesn't know how to deal with gaps, by taking the stack apart, inserting a cup, and putting it back together again.
What he got on hedzey head? Hedzey got hat on hedzey head.The other day I tried to find out if she could pronounce it:
D: Say "fizz" H: Fizz. D: Say "bizz" H: Bizz. D: Say "his" H: HedzeySome time ago I noticed that she says "hedzey" a lot for "his", but I couldn't remember how she pronounced "her". After a lot of coaxing, I got her to say a sentence with "her" in it, "that's her hat": "Dat she hat!" An interesting grammatical error.
She also still calls her daycare person, Karleen, "Tony" --- she has always substituted a T for an initial K, but I don't know how she got "ony" from "arleen". In any case, she still calls her Tony. A few weeks ago I tried this:
D: Say Karleen H: Tony D: Say Tony H: Tony [not at all surprised] D: Say Tony Karleen H: Tony Ton... [pauses, realizing the strangeness]... Tony TaneenSome examples of the kind of sentence she uses these days:
My walk dowmtairs, my not fall, my not hurt mysell.
Want Daddy pick dat duy up for me, I'm dwopped it.
[I want Daddy to pick that figurine up for me; I dropped it]
What hedzey do? [What is he doing?]
Where she hat? [Where is her hat?]
My get bee for see Mandy [I am getting my blanket (with which) to go see
Mandy]
I'm make dews dwy [I am drying these (figurines)]
H: [pokes her finger at the pastry Kathy is making] K: Don't touch that, Hayley. H: [pokes her finger at the pastry Kathy is making] K: [louder] Don't touch that, Hayley. H: [smirks and does it again] K: Hayley! Do you want a time-out? H: [smirk, backs off just enough to avoid a time-out] ...Today Hayley was doing something she wasn't supposed to in the living room --- rocking a rocking chair so it banged against the TV, I think. I was still eating breakfast in the kitchen, and Kathy was standing in the doorway of the living room:
K: Hayley, don't rock against the TV --- you'll break it. H: Mommy, go eat bweakfast! K: I've already had breakfast. H: Go sit in dat chaiw talk with Daddy! K: You just want me to go away so you can rock again, don't you? H: [Unabashedly] Yes!Quite a while ago we had an interesting episode with a couple of plastic dinosaur figurines. One is green and one is orange, and they are supposed to glow in the dark. They don't glow much, but the phosphorescence makes them look blue and pink respectively.
Hayley took these to bed one night, and soon afterwards she started calling out to us that she had lost her pink dinosaur. I went in and found her with both dinosaurs, but of course neither looked pink.
I turned the light on for a minute and showed her that the pink dinosaur was the orange dinosaur. Then I turned the light off. The whole time she was looking at the dinosaur in her hand. The conversation went like this:
[flick: light on] H: Were'd onange dinosaur go? D: It is the same one, see: [flick: light off] H: [looking around] Were'd pink dinosaur go? D: You have it right there, it just looks orange now. H: Were'd pink dinosaur go? [flick: light on] H: Were'd onange dinosaur go?Apparently it was easier for her to believe that somehow one dinosaur was being substituted for the other than to believe that the same dinosaur could look different in different lights. When I think of the confusion that sodium lights sometimes cause me when looking for my car, maybe that's not so unreasonable...
quilt -- qwiwt first -- furts table(2) -- tabow some(3) -- shum garbage(2) -- darbage how about -- howba giant(2) -- djaina zebra -- jeebwa chew -- chew whole -- whole talk -- talk living room -- wu-woom don't -- not [e.g., No, Daddy, NOT!] soda -- shoda tissue -- terch-shew worm -- worm crust(2) -- twutch I'll -- I'm [as in, I'm be wight back] roll -- roll bounce -- bounce fox(2) -- fox Kix -- bricks [a kind of cereal] xylophone -- tzayaphone everything -- ennything something -- sumpmnHayley was playing with her figurines again:
H: I'm be wight back. [I'll be right back] H: I det my Barney. [I am getting my Barney] [plays with Barney and Pongo (dalmatian), then makes Pongo push Barney off the table] H: Pongo push Barney. [Pongo pushed Barney] H: Dat not vewy nice. [That wasn't very nice] D: Oh dear. What are you going to do to Pongo? H: [thinks] Pongo give Barney hug [Pongo is going to give Barney a hug]
[Makes the "Daddy" open the refrigerator] Daddy get milk for baby and Mommy. ... Where's Mommy and Daddy's chair? ... Here's Mommy and Daddy's chair --- I found it! Oops. Daddy too big for dat chair. Baby sit in dat chair. ... Want house up on dis table. [She wants me to move the house onto the coffee table] [Moving the house caused some of the people to fall out] Move enything [everything]. I move dese here. Want man sit on dis teu-cheu [I want the man to sit *in* this kitchen] ... Want Daddy get milk and dinner. Baby do ??? ah-ah [after] dinner.
cinderblock -- shinna bwockA few days ago we had a discussion about going outside in the rain. I explained that when it rained, things got wet, and you couldn't sit on them.
H: Want go outside! [I want to go outside] D: No, it's wet outside. H: Want walk on wood! [I want to walk on the wood (planks) outside] D: No, the wood is wet. H: Want walk on unna wood, dat one not wet. [I want to walk on the other wood, that one not wet]
H: We go mawww! [We are going to the mall] D: Yes, we're going to the mbmbmall. [nasally] H: [looks at me strangely] We go mbmbmall. [perfect imitation of me]
She announced: "Dat Yisas!" [Those are Lisas!] Looking closely, those suns really do look like Lisa Simpson!
Howwy Mowwy cow! I dot big poop! [Holy Moly cow! I have got a big poop!]
A: How was your paahhty? H: Had bit poop hangeng [I had a bit of poop hanging]This mystified me until Kathy pointed out that Hayley had understood "How was your potty?" --- earlier that day she had gone to the potty and then found a bit of poop hanging...
Hayley has started to call me "Jak" now:
Hey, Jak! What's up?My mother and I explained that sometimes I was Jak, sometimes Daddy (to her), sometimes John (my mother is one of the few people who still call me that) and sometimes Dr Kirman. Hayley thought about this for a moment and then ran to give me her stethoscope.
My mother and Hayley were cutting up onions, and both of them had tears running down their cheeks. Hayley seemed very surprised by this, and explained to my mother:
My not twy. My happy! [I am not crying. I am happy!]
H: Look, dat boy wide hedzhi mogobike! [Look, that boy is riding his motorbike] D: That's not a motorbike, that's a bicycle! H: Mean, hedzhi wide bike. [I mean, he's riding a bike]A little later she was surprised that it wasn't dark yet:
Look its shtill shunny. It not yate. [Look, it's still sunny. It's
not late.]
She got stuck behind a chair:
Hewwp! Shumbody hewwp! [Help! Somebody help!]
his -- hedzhi help -- hewp sunny -- shunny late -- late cry -- twy happy -- happy
D: Who's that? (Pointing to Cruella De Ville) H: Twewa. Sheed nod vewwy niitz. [Cruella. She's not very nice] H: Talk juss horse. D: She's talking to who? H: Twewa talk juss horse. D: Oh, Cruella is talking to Jasper and Horace.The puppies were escaping from Jasper and Horace through a little hole in the wainscoat.
H: Lill doggies how take turns [The little doggies have to take turns]
H: Lill doggies huwwy home [The little doggies are hurrying home]
H: For Twewa tums. [Before Cruella comes]
H: Pongo, huwwy home for Twewa home [Pongo, hurry home before Cruella
gets home]
After crossing a road, Pongo grabbed a stick with his teeth and used it
to wipe away the tracks.
H: Pongo get peetz gratz wipe twacks [Pongo has got a piece of grass to
wipe the tracks]
[...]
H: Dat labradog! [That's a labrador dog]
The dogs are trying to get back to their house in London. There is a
truck that has broken down and is being fixed; it is on its way to
London, so the dogs sneak on it to get a lift.
Doggies dett back Yunda. [The dogs want to get back to London] Doggies dett wight back. [The dogs will go right back] (a mechanic slams the hood and says "She ought to get you as far as London") Dat man talk bout Yunda. [That man is talking about London]Jasper and Horace are driving in their truck; in one scene their headlights are off, and in the next they are on.
H: Who turn yite on? [Who turned the lights on?] D: Maybe Jasper or Horace. H: Ya, Jus Horse. [Yes, Jasper and Horace]
Hair-dwy aww dun. [The hair-dryer is all done] Now go psssht pssssht. [Now (Mommy will) go 'psssshht']She goes through the motions of spraying hair-spray along with the "psssht" sounds.
H: Heeew, Daddy, tayo book [Here, Daddy, take? book]
D: Thank-you.
H (to herself): Give Daddy dese [Give these to Daddy]
Daddy, here! [Daddy, here!]
D: Thanks.
H: [Fierce concentration] [? something I couldn't understand]
H: Get all Daddy dese [Get all these for Daddy]
(Tosses figurines to me)
H: All Daddy dese
(Tosses figurines to me)
H: Give Daddy all dese
(Tosses figurines to me)
(Tosses figurines to me)
[...]
H: Get Daddy paper
(starts digging for paper in her pile of toys)
H: Oh man! (still digging)
H: Daddy here one for you! (gives me a sheet of paper)
One for you! (gives me a sheet of paper)
Here one for you! (gives me a sheet of paper)
D: Thank-you.
H: Yow wekkum
H: Dett Daddy shum more [(I am going to) get Daddy some more)]
(Hayley picks up a piece of paper folded in two like a book)
H: Dett Daddy book! Who made dat? [Get Daddy a book. Who made this?]
D: I don't know.
H: Maybe Daddy made dat book [Maybe Daddy made this book.]
Some other phrases I noticed:
My dett nappa wipe Hayyey hand [I am getting a napkin to wipe my hand] My yi on toutch [I am lying on the couch] My vewwwy tiwad [I am very tired] My twy dett up [I am trying to get up] My talk shumwun on phone [I am talking to somoene on the phone]The other night we heard her in her crib:
Barney, wake up! What's up?She says the same thing to us if she catches us sleeping anywhere while she's up.
Daddy want pway deese duys [Daddy wants to play with these guys]She really means she wants me to play with these guys.
She really surprised us yesterday by rolling out a ten word sentence without a pause:
My want watch dal doggies on big TV in dat woom [I want to watch 101 Dalmations on the big TV in that room]We can sometimes see her constructing her sentences, as she emits them while forming them:
My want... My want... My want onunge djuice... My want onunge djuice... My want onunge djuice in puhple tup. [I want orange juice in the purple cup]She has used "me" a few times before, but today she seemed to suddenly understand the correct context:
Give dat to me! [Give that to me!]Interestingly, she sometimes mixes different referential forms in the same sentence:
My want put Hayyey shoes on [I want to put my shoes on]
Today we were in the back yard playing with her "guys" (various figurines, Pooh, etc.) Some of them were lying down, and we talked about them being asleep, snoring, etc.; I showed her what snoring is. After a bit she laid down on a bench and pretended to snore. She then got up and announced "Hayyey twick sheep", by which she meant that she was pretending to sleep. I thought it very interesting that she carried over the concept from tricking someone to pretending.
Her use of pronouns is erratic, but definitely improving. She often uses "my" for "I":
My want dat! [I want that] My doe in woom [I am going into the room]She occasionally uses "I" correctly instead. She still often refers to herself in the third person:
Hayyey dett in baff [Hayley is getting into the bath] Hayyey howd Daddy hand [Hayley is holding Daddy's hand]In a few cases she uses "she", in the same way she uses "Hayley", in particular, when we are chasing her, she will run away, squealing excitedly "She dett away!" (She is getting away).
I -- my get -- dett fast-forward -- fa for rewind -- wewind TV -- tee-vee trick -- twick
She was quite disappointed that there were not many sea-gulls there; the last time she went (with Kathy) there were tons of them, and they apparently all flew in and started to eat some chips from a bag that Kathy had left unprotected. Hayley keeps telling us what she told the birds: "Do away, birds!" [Go away, birds].
We got to the beach-house around 10am, and waited an hour or so while our friends got their act together (four kids!). Hayley was quite impatient: "My do beach now!" [I want to go to the beach now!]. To pass the time, I explained what we were going to do:
D: Hayley, we are going to drive in Mommy's car down to the beach, and the others will come in this truck. When we all get there we can play in the sea and the sand, and then we'll have lunch. Ok? H: Shoun yike pyan! [Sounds like a plan!] D: (Cracks up)
dalmations -- dell doggies remember -- member next(2) -- next what's -- watchA lot of our "conversations" at this stage are mainly monologues, with me just echoing what she says to make sure I understood. I won't bother giving the echos.
Bof sit in tchairs [We are both sitting in chairs] Bof eat bweakfasht [We are both eating breakfast] Daddy eat bweakfasht [Daddy is eating breakfast] My eat bweakfasht too [I am eating breakfast too] (broke her banana in two) One bwoke! [That one broke!] Eat nunuh one [(I am going to) eat the other one (piece)] (trying to stick the banana pieces together) Cat fitch [I can't fix it] Need twudwivah [I need my screwdriver.]The other day we were in the living room; the TV was off (for a change!) and I noticed Hayley standing, staring at the TV.
D: What are you looking at? H: Look Hayyey in teevee! [I am looking at Hayley in the TV!]
Want take all dese duys downstairs [I want to take all these guys
(stuffed animals) downstairs]
Hayyey doe on own [Hayley wants to go (downstairs) on her own]
Hayley saw a bubble-bath today, apparently for the first time:
H: All dat snow! [All that snow!] D: No, that's not snow, they are bath-bubbles. H: All dose bubboos! [All those bubbles!]
Hayyey need twudwivah fitz wagga. [Hayley needs a screwdriver to fix her wagon] Bwoke. Oh man! [It's broken. Oh man!]
Oh man! -- Oh man! screwdriver -- twudwivah those -- dose snow -- show broken -- bwoke need -- need fix -- fitz hammer -- hamma battery -- bawwy box -- box
H: Fraid dese people! [I am afraid of these people] K: There is no need to be afraid --- don't you remember Leslie? H: Fraid dese men! [I am afraid of these men]For some reason, she is particularly afraid of Moi; perhaps it is his dark complexion (he is Venezuelan), or his large bushy mustache.
Hayley drinks more fruit juice than is probably good for her, and sometimes gets a bit of diarrhea. A few days ago we bought some Gatorade fruit punch, which tastes like fruit juice but doesn't actually contain any, in the hope that it would help. This evening she wanted fruit punch, so we offered her some of the Gatorade. She didn't like this idea at all, and kept repeating "No addigaday putch!". Finally we realized she meant "No alligator punch"; she had heard us calling it Gatorade, and understood "alligator"! Kathy asked her if she wanted to smell it, and held it up to her nose. Hayley promptly snorted into it; she hasn't quite got the idea of smelling yet...
either -- aiya punch(3) -- punch doesn't -- dont gross -- drotz fox -- fotz pheasant -- pheza snake -- shake Millie -- Meeyee tomorrow -- tana sounds like -- shouns yike bagel -- bay-go triangle -- tran-go next -- nix here -- hee-ah (when offering something) chase -- cheech (she really means following) Thumbelina(2) -- SumbayeembiSome sentences:
dat one dont work aya [that one doesn't work either] dat too high foh me [that (railing) is too high for me] Meeyee be chercher fotz! [Millie (should) be careful of the fox] bay-go shit tay-bo [The bagel is sitting on the table] Dat tat on Mommy tup [That's a cat on Mommy's cup]
H: Where's Daddy's knife? D: Daddy doesn't need a knife H: Daddy ony need one fork [Daddy only needs one (a) fork]Hayley knows her name (Hayyey Ann Terma!), but occasionally she forgets:
D: What's your name? H: (thinks) Hayyey Barney! D: No it's not!! H: Hayyey Ann Terma!Hayley had one shoe in her hand; the other was on her foot, but apparently she had forgotten where it was:
H: (Looking around) Shoe do? [Where did the shoe go?] D: It's on your foot! H: (Sheepishly) Oh ya!She loves to play basketball; she runs around with the ball, then crouches down and holds it on the ground in front of her:
H: Hayyey fake Daddy out! (once Kathy said to her "Are you faking Daddy out?") D: I'm coming to get it! (I come towards her with my arms spread wide) H: (giggles gleefully)She also likes to play "Ring-a-ring of roses", either holding our hands or on her own; she sings:
Winga winga woses Pokka full poses Ashes, ashes (for some reason, this is what American kids say) All fall down! (she drops to the ground)
H: Fruit salad! D: (looking around) Where do you see fruit salad? H: Right dere! (pointing to a jar on the counter) D: (picking it up) This? This is apple sauce. H: (happily) Want dat!
front -- fun new -- new bike -- bike fall -- faww over(2) -- over blister -- bwitsa Kirman -- Terma Ann -- Ann name -- name covers -- tovers rainbow -- wainbow
D: Is your name Barney? H: Nooooo! [giggles] Name Hayyey Terma! H: Name Hayyey Ann!Hayley likes to walk with Kathy and me holding her hands; she counts to three: "One, twooo, tweeeee!", and we swing her in the air. She definitely doesn't have the concept of counting down pat yet --- she realizes that you should jab your finger while counting, but doesn't realize you have to jab it at the things you are counting. So she points wildly at a book, saying "One, twooo, tweee!", and occasionally other sequences of numbers. If I show her a pair of things and ask how many, she will usually say two, but she pointed to a windchime with five hanging ducks and said: "Two ducks!". She counts groups of two and three fairly reliably, though she sometimes makes random mistakes.
She has a slowly developing notion of time. For some time now (from 1yr 9mo) she has known that "minute" means some quantity of time:
Hayyey tay bah MINNA! [Hayley wants to stay in the bath one more minute]She sometimes uses phrases like "five minutes" or "ten minutes", but she doesn't understand the relationships between different amounts of time; for instance, I believe she wouldn't be able to compare five and ten minutes. Expectations and future events are quite hard concepts to grasp; Hayley seems to sort of understand when we tell her we will do something "tomorrow", or "later". If we tell her we will do something after dinner, say, she will sometimes surprise us by remembering.
Hayley has started to push us around, literally. The other day she pushed/hit Kathy. Kathy was justifiably angry:
K: Hayley! Don't hit Mommy! H: (contritely, with her hands behind her back) Shaweeeee [Sorry]She melted our hearts! That reminds me of a great cartoon from a book Kathy gave me. The wonders of the web --- here it is:
H: Hayyey hat. D: You want us to go get your hat? H: Ya. D: Ok. H: Hayyey tum back outside [Hayley wants to come back outside (afterwards)] D: Ok.She ran most of the way back home, saying
Oh dosh! Oh dosh!. I wasn't sure what she was saying, but when I asked her if she meant
Oh gosh!, she made the little "hmm" sound that means "yes, that is what I meant". I have no idea what she thinks "Oh gosh!" means, though. We got her hat and sunglasses (she looks hysterical), and she announced:
H: Hayyey back Hedda pool! [Hayley wants to go back to Heather's pool.]She took up pretty much where she had left off back in Heather's yard, though by the time we got back there she had grown bored with the hat and glasses. Just a few months ago I noticed her losing her train of thought much more often.
toybox -- toybox hedgehog -- hodge-heg some(2) -- tsum kids(2) -- tids street -- treet just -- djust come -- tum (she has used this for ages, but I forgot to put it in)
Dranna dave Hayyey hodgeheg [Grandad gave Hayley (that) hedgehog]
Dranna put Hayyey hodgeheg in toybox [Grandad put Hayley's hedgehog in
the toybox]
Hayyey cher-cher staiwws [Hayley should be careful on the stairs]
The Lion Kinghas some quite scary scenes. This evening after she went to bed I popped my head in and saw her reading her Lion King book, turned to a scene where Simba has been trapped by a stampeding herd of buffalo. Simba's father Mufasa is bounding down the side of the canyon to save him. He subsequently gets trampled to death by the buffalo. Hayley was telling me about it:
Daddy yi-yi cher-cher butsutch. [The daddy lion (should be) careful (of
the) buffalo.]
Shimba fwaid. [Simba is afraid.]
[Turning to page where Simba is crying over his dead father.]
Daddy yi-yi do ny-ny. [The daddy lion is sleeping.]
Shimba sad. Shimba cwy. [Simba is sad. Simba is crying.]
fingernails -- hangeng, or hangengnails sawdust -- tsaw-duts sloth -- shaw pose -- pose (Hayley stands in the Power Rangers pose) alligator(2) -- addigaday buffalo -- butsutch swan -- fwom swing -- shwing
Hayyey do Pow-mange pose [Hayley is doing the Power Rangers pose]
Daddy bwing more cheu-chi in bowww [Daddy, bring more fish (crackers) in
this bowl]
Daddy mukky! [Daddy is a monkey, on seeing me climb a tree]
Hayyey ?? Daddy [Hayley is chasing Daddy; I have forgotten her word for this]
Hayyey funny bunny [Hayley is a funny-bunny]
The other day Hayley discovered that she can peer through the cracks in
the fence to the neighbours' yard, where there is a big plastic swan
(!). We were sitting in the back yard, when she suddenly piped:
H: Big fwom! D: A big what? H: Big fwom! D: I don't understand. H: Come heew, Daddy, shee big fwom! [she ran over to the fence and pointed through the crack]A little later we were in a different neighbour's yard, across the street. Hayley started talking about a big swan, and pointing to a picket fence. I think she thought there was another big swan behind that fence. There might well have been, for that matter!
H: Cwacka! D: Where did you get the cracker? H: Fwom bag! Hayyey cwacka! [From the bag. It's Hayley's cracker.] D: Do you want me to open the package? H: Hayyey ope. [Hayley will open it. (tries to...)] Daddy ope. Hayyey twy op. [Hayley tried to open it]This morning I was watching TV with her when she toddled off towards the bathroom, where Kathy was. After five minutes or so I followed to see where she had gone. She wasn't in our bedroom, or the bathroom; I rushed around the rest of the house. No Hayley. I looked in the bedroom again and then called to Kathy. A giggle came from somewhere --- I looked carefully, and there was Hayley, an almost un-noticeable bump under the sheets in our bed. She must have been hiding there for quite a while, in complete silence.
Yesterday we were sitting at the kitchen table; it was quite a warm day. Apropos of nothing, Hayley announced "Hot in hewwe" [It's hot in here].
Before she gets into her high-chair now, she has to buckle the straps up. Then we unbuckle the straps, put her in, and buckle them again. She has recently taken to insisting on doing the buckles up when she is in the chair too --- "I do!", and when she manages, "Hayyey I did it!"
For weeks now she has been talking about a "Cheu-cheu pawade", and we had no idea what she was on about. The closest we could come was "Fish parade", which didn't seem to make any sense. Finally, today, we figured it out --- she was watching "Barney live" when she came running out to announce that the "cheu-cheu pawade" was on. It's a marching band that Barney calls a "circus parade". "Barney live in New York" has been driving her insane with delight for the last few days. She will come rushing out of the living room, her face bright red with excitement, stuttering: "What's dat? What's dat?", meaning that we should ask her what is going on. When we do, she explodes "B.J.!" (the name of one of Barney's side-kicks, who has just come on scene). She will do this again and again at the same point in the tape, as if each was the first time she had ever seen it. She follows along with their songs with accompanying gestures with great gusto, too.
really -- reeyee heavy(2) -- heaby circus -- cheu-cheu elephant -- onant stuck(2) -- shtuck both -- bowf count -- count rooster -- woota Winkster (Barney live character) -- Winksha careful -- cheu-cheu (indistinguishable from circus)
Boppy B stuck [Baby Bop's blanket is stuck] Hayyey take shirt off [Hayley took her shirt off] Daddy cup Hayyey gween gwapes [Daddy is cutting up Hayley's green grapes] Cheu-cheu Manny poop! [Be careful of Mandy's poops] Millie cheu-cheu big fox [Millie should be careful of the big fox]
[Walking back from the pool] H: Bowf wet. D: What? H: Hayyey wet. Daddy wet. Bowf wet.Counting still has a large random element, but it is gradually settling down. Today we were counting the rabbits in a picture in a new book she has.
D: One, two, three, four, five. H: One, two, three, four, five! D: Very good. H: One, two, two, two, two! H: One, two, five, five, five!Hayley was delighted by Kathy's nail-polish today, the first time she has noticed it: "Mommy hang-eng-naiow pweddy!"
H: Dat? D: Turn signal. H: Dat? [Turns the warning lights on] D: Flashers. To tell people you have broken down. H: Dat? D: Stereo. H: Mu-mu onn. [Points to the volume knob] D: [Turns it on] H: [Turns it up] Mu-mu youd! [A bit frightened] D: You turn it down. Turn it the other way. H: [Turns it down] H: Dat? D: Wipers.and so on, for a good five minutes. She learns pretty quickly, I must say; there are few things that she asks about more than four or five times. If she hears a new sound, she will ask about that, too: Dat? Sometimes she makes guesses, and we make a big deal if she guesses right. This is a classical AI learning problem: categorization --- she hears a bunch of sounds, and a teacher (usually one of us) tells her what it is. This would probably be a problem that it would be quite hard to engineer a solution to, but quite easy to write a program to learn a solution to. I'll ask Leslie if she knows of any.
She recognizes fire trucks (actually sirens), motorbikes, cars, trucks, trains, and planes. After about three weeks of frequent questions, plus a good deal of time seeing and hearing them outside, she gets it right almost all the time. As a very rough guess I would say she has had a few thousand learning instances.
Curiously, though she has never had any reason to be afraid of these noises, she often tells me she is afraid of them:
[Loud motorbike goes by] H: Dat? D: Motorbike. H: Hayyey fwaid mogo-bike! D: There's nothing to be afraid of. It won't come here. H: Daddy! [I think she meant: it won't come because Daddy is here] D: Well, motorbikes stay on the road, usually. H: Mogobike woad, not here. D: Right.
This morning I left Hayley in the living room watching Barney while I took a shower. As I got in to the shower I heard the pad of little feet, so I poked my head out, just in time to see a naked rear-end disappearing into our room. She had taken her diaper off and gone to lie in our bed! I hopped out of the shower, took her back to the living room and put her diaper on. "Now, keep that on! You can't run around without a diaper, Hayley." She looked at me with a mischievous grin, one hand on the diaper tab, and said "Daddy, shower now!"
She liked the sea, though she wouldn't go in above her ankles unless I held her, but she liked it when we waded a long way out. The beach we were at was pretty nice, though it got fairly crowded as the day progressed. The water was quite warm, there were lots of fish and crabs, mostly a sandy bottom with a few stones.
We built some sand-castles, though Hayley preferred tearing them down to building them (I hope the Genghis Khan mentality subsides eventually), and found some crab shells on the beach. Hayley wasn't too happy to leave after two hours, but that seemed about the perfect amount of time, because she dozed in the car on the way back, and she wasn't burned (though I was!)
A little further we came upon a little girl a bit older than Hayley, playing in her yard where her mother was sitting. The little girl came up to the gate to her yard, and Hayley slowly approached the gate from the other side. After staring at each other for a long time, the little girl asked Hayley if those were dogs on her T-shirt. "Poyyar bears", replied Hayley. Hayley then pointed to her sneakers. "Sheakah!" Then to my shoes. "Daddy shoes on!" The little girl didn't react, so she tried again "Daddy DOT shoes on! Daddy DOT bwown shoes on!" I repeated these (Daddy has got brown shoes on), but the girl still didn't react, and Hayley gave up and we continued on our way. It was hard to tell whether the girl didn't understand or just wasn't very interested, but it was fascinating to watch Hayley trying to communicate; she adjusted her sentence several times to try to get it over.
Another interesting example of her running up against her limits in expression came this evening when I was reading her a book with animals playing musical instruments. There is a picture of a monkey holding a rattle out; it looks as if the monkey is giving it to the zebra. Hayley's comments went like this:
H: Mukkey div... [points to rattle] dat? (Monkey gives... what's that?) D: A rattle. H: Mukkey div ratta... [points to zebra] dat? D: A zebra H: Mukkey div ... zebwa! Mukkey div ... [points to rattle] dat?This went on for a while; apparently she couldn't keep the names for rattle and zebra in mind long enough to construct the sentence.
I was washing Hayley's hands after dinner when Kathy said something about getting between her fingers. Hayley looked down at her fingers, and started counting them off, starting with the pinkie:
H: [points to pinkie] Yidda finga! [little finger] H: [points to ring finger] Yidda finga! [little finger] H: [points to big finger] Big finga! H: [points to index finger] Big finga! H: [points to thumb] ... Dat? D: That's your thumb. H: [showing both thumbs] Two fumb!Hayley was telling us about the Discovery Zone:
H: Hayyey fun icovury own [Hayley had fun in the Discovery Zone] H: Hayyey in big tubes! [Hayley went in the big tubes] H: (Sadly) Hayyey home now [Hayley is home now]Some other sentences:
Mommy twarwy Hayyey up dere [Mommy carry (lift) Hayley up there] Shija! Dat sharp! [Scissors. Those are sharp.]
catch -- terch wagon -- waigai sticky -- tecky scissors -- shija sharp -- sharp tube -- tube fun -- fun
magic sleep dust (The Sandman) -- mudda sheep dahtz where's the plug? -- where's pug? Heather -- Hedda Stephanie -- Terchi Jennifer -- Denufer carousel -- tcharasow breakfast -- bruh-bruhWe went through Dunkin' Donuts drive-through, and the man behind the counter gave me our doughnuts.
H: Man dave Daddy dodo [The man gave Daddy the doughnuts] [He then typed the amount into the cash register] H: Man pway poduh [The man is playing with the computer]Several times I have been alone with her in the morning and found myself needing to run downstairs for a minute. Regardless of where I actually tell her I am going, she knowingly announces that I am going to
pway pohduh(play with the computer we keep down there).
She says "comes" for "here comes", now:
Tums big twuck [Here comes a big truck]She uses either
where's xto ask where something is, or, in a very high pitch
x go?:
(squeak) Daddy go? [Where did Daddy go?] (squeak) B go? [Where did my blanket go?] Where's B? [Where is my blanket]
Some other sentences I heard:
Daddy howd traws [Daddy, hold the straws] Dese yidda twaws [These are little straws] Hayyey dwop dat [Hayley dropped it] Hayyey pway djoos [Hayley is playing with her juice] Might fawl ova [(trying to add to a tower of blocks) it might fall over] Daddy put awl back [Daddy is putting them (blocks) all back]
H: Dat! [What's that?] D: That's the coffee pot. H: Bai-yai! D: Bai-yai? What does that mean? H: Daddy toffee bai-yai. [Daddy's coffee is boiling]
Special K (cereal) -- preh-preh-tay Lion King (2) -- Yi-yi king big(3) -- big (Back to big again)Most of her sentences are three or four words, and her grammar is improving --- she gets the word order right most of the time. She uses a few plurals; she made the distinction between hole and holes while playing with her figurines in a cinder-block. Occasionally she will come out with five-word sentences; it is especially interesting to hear her build them up:
Mommy puh-wo [Mommy's pillow] Daddy - Mommy puh-wo Daddy do ny-ny Mommy puh-wo [Daddy, go to sleep on Mommy's pillow]
He was
lying flat on his back on a table, wearing just a loin-cloth, with
several people gathered around him. Hayley looked at the picture and
said "Change. No poop." Quite reasonable if one doesn't know that big
strong Indian braves don't usually wear diapers 
.
racoon -- racoon Pocahontas -- poke-honta pool -- poow
Watch out, Manny poop [Watch out for Mandy's poops while walking in the grass]
Watch doggie bit. Watch doggie minna. [She wants to watch the dog for a
bit; for a minute]
Happy day, Daddy! (To me, on Father's day)
Raining. Yi-yi-ting in rain. [It's raining. The Lion King is in the rain.]
Daddy sit Hayyey tchair [Daddy, sit in Hayley's chair.]
Teen preddy fowah [Those are Christine's pretty flowers]
She plays with figurines all the time; she has a set of four Winnie the
Pooh plastic figures (Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore), and she lines
them up on the table, on the edge of the bathtub, on the floor,
everywhere... They all have to be facing the same way --- anal like her
parents 
. She has
started to do the same thing with bottles now; for example she likes to
carry around a couple of bottles of baby powder and a skin-cream
dispenser. Not only do they have to all have the labels facing the same
way, but she carefully twists the top of the skin-cream dispenser to be
facing the right way too. Good grief.
When I came back for the weekend in the middle of the course, I brought
Hayley a stuffed penguin that quacks and waddles. She liked the
penguin, but when we put it on the floor and turned it on, she was
terrified . She still
refuses to let us turn it on...
Mickey -- Mickey Minnie -- Minnie mouse -- mouw yes -- yes yay -- yay guys -- dies (her Pooh and Sesame Street figurines) bit -- bit waterfall -- waddah-faw monkey -- mukkee Lion King -- Yi-Yi-Ting Eeyore (3) -- Ee-or-yee motorbike -- mogo-bike plane -- pwane
straw -- twoww different -- deu-deu shy -- shy hyena -- hi-eeny minute -- minna firetruck -- fy-fy-twuck dig in -- dig in end -- enna alligator -- aygay pretty -- priddee Jonah (and the whale) -- Joan Cruella (101 Dalmations) -- Twerwa computer man (Prince of Persia) -- Perper manExamples:
Hayyey be shy [Hayley is shy] Hayyey tay bah MINNA! [Hayley wants to stay in the bath one more minute] Mommy, howd arm [Mommy, hold my arm] (Pointing to last page in a book) Enna! [The end!] Hayyey Teen show; show priddee [Hayley wants to show Christine that she is pretty in her new dress]Hayley is beginning to learn to blow her nose (something it took me many more years to do!); if we hold a kleenex to her nose she gives a sort of snort. Not very effective, but a good start
.
caterpillar -- tatterpoo naked legs -- sexy legs music -- mew-mew loud -- youd fresh water -- fesh waddah stuck -- tuck cheek -- cheek upsy-daisy -- uppy-daisy over -- owah
Today was Brown commencement; it poured, but Kathy and Hayley, Kay and Renee stuck it out to watch. Hayley thought the band was too loud (mew-mew youd!). She still isn't keen on having lots of people around; she gets shy and clings to us, but she is gradually getting better. I hope that with the nicer weather and more opportunities to take her out she will start to lose some of this shyness.
step-ladder -- shep yadda diaper -- die-die tight -- tightExamples:
(After I put her diaper on) Die-die tight! [Diaper too tight] (I loosened it) Bedder! [Better] Watch out, Manny! [Watch out, Mandy!] Shup up, Manny! [Shut up, Mandy!]
all gone -- all gone feed me -- feed you (she wants us to feed her; of course, we say "feed you") cracker -- tracka corner -- torner hand(2) -- hand glasses -- dradra run away -- wunna way go home -- doe home some -- shum belt -- bewwt Patty -- patty Kayla -- kayla Grandad -- Dran-na (she has known this for a while now) slowly -- show-yee lick -- yick cheese -- chee giant -- dji-dji kitchen -- cher-cher Dumbo -- dumbo broom -- bwoom shovel -- shuva
.
Hayley and I were on the porch this afternoon; she stood up on a chair
and said "Hayyey shee twee!" (Hayley sees the trees). "Yes, but sit
down so you don't fall." She sat down, looked at the trees, and then
looked back at me balefully. "Hayyey shee weuh-weuh" (Hayley sees the
railings).
Today we were sitting outside when I saw a big ant walking by. I
pointed it out to her, and predictably she tried to pick it up. To my
surprise, she managed to, probably petrifying the poor ant in the
process. I told her she shouldn't pick up ants because she would hurt
them. She promptly picked it up again and kissed it better. The ant
staggered off wetly.
For the last few weeks, "choices" have been the big thing. First, of
course, it was clothes --- we have a constant battle in the morning to
prevent her from looking like a color-blind clown. Then, it was cups.
She has a bunch of cups of different colors, and she wants to choose
the color of her cup every time we give her something to drink. A
sample conversation:
H - Hayyey, Hayyey, porch. [Hayley wants some punch] D - Ok. (getting a cup out of the cupboard) H - Show me! [she wants to show us which cup she wants] D - (lifting her up to see better) Ok, which one do you want? H - Yoyo one! D - The yellow one? Ok (putting back the other one and taking out the yellow one) H - No, no, puhpu one! [no, no, the purple one] (Changed her mind. Sigh.) D - (switch to the purple one) H - Yah, yah (nods)She is getting better about changing her mind all the time; now she usually just picks one and sticks with it. I usually find that being overly patient at first is effective.
We also try to give her as much choice as possible with her food --- she is much more likely to eat something she has chosen than something we pick for her. A few days ago Kathy asked her what she wanted for dinner and she decided "shoop, take" --- soup and cake. Surprisingly to me, she really likes soup; I have never been much of a soup fan.
She is still quite afraid of the vacuum cleaner (and in general of
anything loud). Today Kathy was getting ready to vacuum our bedroom. I
was in the living room, when suddenly I heard
Daddy! Mommy vahvah now!and she came rushing in to cling to me. If we are outside and a noisy car goes by, she comes rushing over and buries her face in our legs...
H: Turtle innit. [she wanted to put her turtle in a box] H: Daddy geddit. (nods) [Daddy, go get the turtle] D: If you say please. H: Pweeeease! D: Ok. Where is it? H: Turtle in Hayyey woom [the turtle is in Hayley's room] H: (Impatient with my slowness) Hayyey hewp fine [Hayley will help find it]
after -- ah-ah clean -- teen mess -- meh better -- bedder blueberry -- boobrary ice cream -- eyetz tream railing -- weuh-weuh nearly(2) -- nairny pink -- pink shell -- shay Eeyore (2) -- or-yeeShe really loves blueberries and ice cream; her reaction to the cold ice cream is pretty funny sometimes, since she doesn't know to eat small bites at a time, nor how to deal with the coldness in her mouth.
Daddy teen ah-ah. [Daddy will clean afterwards] Daddy teen meh. [Daddy will clean the mess]
Hayyey Tookie feet tsutss (Hayley is kissing Cookie Monster's feet)Sometimes she uses more standard structure:
Hayyey move dat
room -- woom present -- prezhent book (2) -- book over there -- ebu shower -- show-ahExample: Mommy take showah.
She has been saying "ebu" for weeks now, and it took me ages to understand what she meant. I don't know how she gets "ebu" from "over there"...
Hayley has an interesting relationship with Mandy, the german shepherd
who lives downstairs. Mandy is pretty rambunctious, and tends to jump
all over Hayley when she gets close. Understandably (Mandy is to Hayley
about as a large horse would be to me), this makes Hayley nervous, yet
she still insists on going to say hello to her. She goes up close like
someone getting near to a hot fire, half-cowering and half turned away.
A while ago Jeff and Christine got a dog-house for Mandy and now if Mandy is in it, Hayley says with a very knowing air "Mimi shide. Mimi sheep." (Mandy is inside. Mandy is asleep).
picture -- pisha starship -- tar ship (Star Trek Enterprise) wood -- wood pear -- pear cold -- told yellow(2) -- yoyo now -- now
purple -- peu-peu metal -- menna green(2) -- dreen dinosaur -- dine-ine-tsoar big(2) -- beh-beh (actually much harder to understand than before)
We have a small porch outside our apartment, with a metal floor. I put
down some fake grass a few years ago, since the metal gets very hot, but
the grass is peeling up. This is where Hayley learned "metal" and
"green" from; she sits on the metal, "Hayyey menna sit", then moves over
to the green stuff, "Hayyey dreen sit", and then back... Repetition
doesn't seem to bother children .
hiding -- hi-na thank-you -- nee-nee (only when prompted) fly -- fwai porch -- porch stay there -- tay darwe punch(2) -- porch (identical to porch) climb -- kwime let me show you what I mean -- show-me Pearl Jam -- pearl djamm (a rock group)Typical utterances:
Hayyey yid hode (Hayley wants to hold the lid) Mimi dat way (Mandy is over that way) Daddy kwime dat [shakes head] (Daddy can't climb that)I showed her how to climb a pole (she just wraps her legs around it), and demonstrated on a small pole. She then pointed to a huge telephone pole and asked me to climb it. I told her it was too high. Now whenever the subject of climbing comes up she points to the big pole and tells me that I can't climb it.
The last few days Hayley has been obsessed with opening and closing doors.
For a couple of weeks now she has been running (i.e., there is a moment when both feet are off the ground). She also likes to jump, though her co-ordination is not very good yet, so she doesn't get airborne most of the time. She likes spinning around, climbing stairs and poles (she just wraps her legs around the pole), and she is still very big on moving stones around. She loves to play basketball, and to watch the other kids playing. She throws the ball fairly well, I think, given how big it is to her. She also does remarkably well kicking balls. I think she picks most of this stuff up from daycare; it is really nice to have her spend the day with other kids.
I am often surprised at the things she can do, but equally surprised at things she can't. She has a small (20x20x15 cm) toolbox, and a large (60cm long) Barney stuffed toy. I asked her if she wanted to put Barney in the box to take him downstairs, and she tried to stuff him in. When this didn't work, she took the tools out of the box and tried again. Apparently even quite old children (four or five) have a hard time comparing volumes; the classical experiment involves pouring water from a short fat glass into a tall thin one and asking the child if there is more or less.
blue -- boo yellow -- yowo red -- red green -- geen hello -- huwo underneath -- unner-ni fit (as in fit inside something) -- fitt throw -- fro move -- mooov spin -- spin (?) Triples (a kind of cereal) -- tuh-tuh Cheerios (a kind of cereal)-- tseewee-oh cereal -- cee-wee-oh
pizza -- peetee under -- unna clap -- trap chin -- chin kids -- ted slide -- shide very -- vehvyElmo (2) -- omo
naked -- nake dance -- dance own -- ownnnHas a hard time stacking cups --- she understands that the small ones have to go in the bigger ones, but has trouble with orienting them correctly.basketball -- ba ba baww bread -- brett butter -- butder
oven -- ava fort -- forch (she uses the space under her high-chair as a fort) Jimmy -- Jimmy gnome -- gnome troll -- troww like -- yike pants -- pants fine -- fine bench -- bench sun -- sun crust -- tru pull -- poo push -- puh
Hayyey bench [Hayley wants to sit on the bench (any low wall is a bench)] Hayyey bench sun [Hayley wants to sit on the part of the bench that is in the sun]
Hayyey dowm own [Hayley wants to go down (the stairs) on her own] Hayyey ope own [Hayley wants to open (the door) on her own]
break -- brait
Hayyey brait off [Hayley broke of a piece of taco]
sorry -- shawee little -- yehyehShe uses "sorry" to indicate that I have misunderstood her:
- Hayyey, Hayyey, dowm tsair! - You want to get down from your chair? - Shawee! Hayyey, Hayyey dowm tsair! Tschair no! - Oh, sorry, you want to go down stairs? - [nodding happily] yah, yahShe understands big and little --- she had a set of measuring spoons; she showed me the smallest one and said "yehyeh poon". I asked her for the big one, and she rummaged around with the spoons for a while and then pulled out the biggest one.
When Kathy was away sometimes she would scrunch up, sitting in the corner of her crib as I walked out after winding up her screen or something. She would look at me with a cute grin and say "Rock?", in a tone conveying that she knew perfectly well what the answer would be. I would laugh and say no, no more rocking tonight. She always smiled at that; I am convinced she knew she was going for a long shot.
upside-down -- I-tie-dowm
Hayyey Hayyey tschair! Dat tschair!Hayley was drawing on a small piece of paper on the table, but there was more friction between the pen and the paper than the paper and the table, so the paper was sliding on the table instead of the pen on the paper. Without hesitation she used her other hand to hold the paper down, just as I would have. I guess it is not that remarkable, but it seemed it at the time.
draw or write -- tautau have -- hawwalots of 3-word sentences these days, like
- "Daddy TV on" - "Hayyey tookie narna" (Hayley cookie another: Hayley wants another cookie). - "Hayyey tone hawwa" (Hayley has a stone).When the K was here she seemed to suddenly catch on to the idea of generalization. She would touch her head and say "Hayyey head", and then point to my head and say "Daddy head", and then to anyone else around, and then through the whole list of people she knows, often including dolls or inanimate objects: "Tsweee head!"; "No, Hayley, trees don't have heads".
chili -- cherchi
lemon -- yemma
I turned around from the sink today and saw her pick up a kiwi she had taken out of the fruit bowl. She kissed it and said "Kiwi" with an air of satisfaction and then put it back in the bowl. Cute!
Hayyey, Hayyey, Hayyey, dat tone! [Hayley {wants, has, etc.} that stone.]
that -- dat
Johnny -- Johnny (Johnny Depp and Renee) in it -- innit (Hayyey tone innit: Hayley is putting stones in it [the wagon]) another -- narna kiwi -- kiwi
Uses the back of her hand to close a door if she is holding something.
nearly -- neayee shave -- sheu-sheu shut -- shuh pineapple -- pah-mine orange -- oh-none chocolate -- cha-cha jump -- dump
She started 3-word sentences around 18 months.
A lot of difficulty with colors; often she will just use the last color word she heard, regardless of the color of the object she is looking at.
napkin -- napnap Piglet -- peupeu carry -- tcheawee heavy -- tsieby Rabbit -- rahrah dress -- dreah (imperative) Pooh -- poohsilly -- sishi Eeyore -- oily couch -- tao ghost -- doast get up -- dupp apart -- pow (e.g., please pull this lego apart) table -- tautau
Here are some of the words Hayley knows. I started collecting these about two weeks ago --- the beginning of February 95. These are all active vocabulary, that is, she independently says the words.
all done -- awl dumm arm -- ahm ballet -- bayay balloon -- boom bath -- bah bear -- beah big -- big blanket -- bibi block -- boah book -- booh bubble -- bubbuh bunny -- bunny burp -- bur byebye -- bubbeye cat -- kitty chair -- tsare cheers -- tseerz cookie -- tookie cow -- tao cuff -- cuh (cuff my pants) daddy -- daddy dinner -- dindin dirty -- dirty doctor -- doctoh dog -- doh don't eat -- donnee down -- dum duck -- ducky dwee -- dee elbow -- ohboow excuse me -- cu me eye -- eye fan -- fah fell down -- boumi fish -- chichi four -- fouah fruit punch -- pum garbage -- darda goodnight -- nai-nai grape -- drape hair -- hehw hand -- hann hat -- hah horse -- hoh-sheehouse -- how hot -- hoh hurt -- booboo jello -- jojo juice -- djoo light -- yai lion -- yion macaroni -- roni milk -- mooo mittens -- mihmih mommy -- mommy mouth -- mout (long time ago) nose -- nose off -- ohf on -- oh one -- waaan penguin -- peh-meh pig -- pee-eee plate -- pay pot pie -- puh-pie punch -- pum remote -- moh (TV remote) ride -- rye rock -- rah sauce -- shaw shoe -- shoe sleep -- sheep slippery -- sheepy sock -- sock spoon -- poon stone -- tone three -- twee toy -- toy train -- tay tv -- tee vee two -- two up -- uh vacuum cleaner -- wawa walk -- wah water -- wawa yogurt -- yoyo Baby Bop -- boppy Barney -- Barney Bert -- Buhr Big Bird -- Beh beh Christine -- Teen Debbie -- debbie Elmo -- Momo Ernie -- Ernie Freddy -- Feffi Grandma -- dram-ma Greg -- Dreg Hayley -- Hay-hee Holly -- Hoh-hee Jak -- dja Jeff -- Dja Jenna -- jenna Karleen -- tony Kathy -- tati Loren -- Mowen Mandy -- Mimi Nicholas -- nih-nih Renee -- nay
She walks quite long distances without holding on or falling over; it has happened quite gradually.
Hayley with Fred Riss
Hayley with Debbie Merrill
Hayley with my father, Alan Kirman:
Hayley crying.
A few of me and Hayley:
One of Hayley's first baths.
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![[Jak]](/people/jak/images/jack-h.gif)
![[Hayley]](/people/jak/hayley/images/baby.gif)