Various kid cognitive

I had a slew of cognitive things over the last week, that I felt like sharing.


Poetic descriptions, when she doesn't know the word: When talking about being watched over at Gran's place: She said her cousin (one year older) “will sleep on the floor on the rectangle little bed”. The Lady asked “the mattress?” -- which The Girl agreed to, and used “mattress” in her next statement.


It was The Lady's mom's birthday a little while ago. Gave her some porcelain figurines. The Girl said “We need to put them on the counter, so ev-ry-one can LOOK at them.” (The ''counter'' is actually a low shelf.)

A few things: (1) A reasonably complex (and grammatical!) sentence; and (2) a somewhat advanced concept, to understand that other people have a point of view; and (3) shows a certain level of generosity or consideration for others, that she wants others to be able to see these things.


Interesting balance between imagination and literalness. I was typing on the computer, and The Girl came in and said “I need to write my shopping list.” So, I opened a new document, and let her sit on my lap and use the keyboard. I asked, “Oh, are you going to write down carrots? And apples?” Her reply: “Noooo. We already HAVE those.”

So: she can pretend to write a shopping list (it was just gibberish; she doesn't even know all her alphabet letters); but she can't pretend to add things to the list that we aren't truly lacking.


Interesting turn of phrase: The girl asked "Are you sure you want to play the animal?” for "Would you like to play the 'animal songs' CD?" And asked "Are you sure you want to dance with me, ever?'' for whether I'd like to dance with her (I'm not sure how to interpret the ''ever'').


Vocabulary: She saw me bobbing my teabag in my mug, so she asked “Why you dipping in it?” I didn’t know she knew the word “dipping”. When you think about it, that's a fairly obscure vocabulary word (when you took high school French -- or whatever -- did you cover the verb ''to dip''?).


Early personality differentiation: It's interesting having non-identical twins, because you can make early observations about personality and developmental progress -- a bit of a ''natural experiment'' -- given that they're being raised in essentially the same social environment. B2 is much more willing to stand up if you hold on to his hands -- whereas B1 goes all ''jelly legs'' (as The Lady calls it).

Also, when you cradle B1 in your arms, with his head under your chin and against your shoulder, he tends to melt into you, happy to be held; whereas B2 tends to be stiff, as he looks around at his environment. We'll see if their personality differences continue.


--GG