Talking with Toddlers

The mind of a toddler is a fascinating thing! The way they process information and apply it to their lives never fails to amuse and amaze me! Here's an example:

Reagan is a girl. She knows that she is a girl. Therefore, she understands that the word cowboy does not exactly describe what she is if she puts on the cowboy hat. She needs another word to describe herself. Her little mind does not yet grasp the concept of substituting girl for boy to get cowgirl, so instead she came up with cowboy-girl. Isn't that clever? And adorable?

She did the same thing with handprints. Thanks to Blue's Clues, the kids are all about clues and pawprints. (They love to stick their animal slipper-clad feet up in the air and yell, "A clue! A clue!" because there are pawprints in the bottom of the shoes. But that's beside the point.) Well, they have handprints hanging up in their bedroom. Reagan understands that they are prints of hands, not paws, but can't seem to remember the word handprint, so she calls them hand-pawprints. So cute!

And just as a sidenote, she is still calling Zachary Ya-ya, although she is pronouncing it a little differently now, rhyming more with the Za in Zachary than with aw, like she used to. Interesting!