I have clearly warped the mind of the Girl Child who, at 3 1/2, appears to understand me fully without need of translation. See, the thing is that I got into the habit very early with her of trying to say things in as many different ways as possible in order to build her vocabulary and the habit has become unconcious. This weekend we were in the car and had the following interchange:
GC: Pappa, can I put my window down?Me: No.
GC: Why not?
Me: The control panel indicates that it is not appropriate for you to open your window.
GC: That means the lock is on, right? Maybe you could unlock it.
Me: [I laughed, bowed to her superior reasoning, and unlocked it]
It's fun with kids, to watch their vocabularies explode. I wouldn't trade these moments for anything.
Posted by Random Penseur at September 20, 2004 07:40 AMI'm going to try that on mine in the morning. She'll be confused, but that's because we won't be in the car.
Posted by: Simon at September 20, 2004 10:05 AMwonderful...
she delights all of us...even though we have never met her.
'maybe you could unlock it.'
heehee...
great kid.
If this conversation happened when I was a kid (and we had automatic window-scrolling buttons in cars way back then) it might have gone something like this:
BC (boychild): Can I roll the window down?
Carolyn (my daytime guardian): Your question is 'MAY I roll the window down'.
BC: Okay.. MAY I roll the window down?
Carolyn: No.
BC: Why not?
Carolyn: Because the control panel indicates that it is not appropriate for you to open your window.
BC: That means the lock is on, right? Maybe you could unlock it!
Carolyn: Yes. Yes, indeed I could.
BC: [*stares at Carolyn until the conversation has obviously ended*]
:)
Posted by: Tuning Spork at September 20, 2004 09:58 PMShe is so precious. I know exactly what you mean re: living for those moments. They are precious indeed, and it's great that your recording them.
Posted by: michele at September 21, 2004 12:37 AMI'm glad you all enjoyed the story!
Posted by: RP at September 28, 2004 11:28 AM