Thursday, April 2, 2009

An indefinite article

It's been a while.

Here's an update on Chloe-speak:

Among other things, we have the indefinite article. You know the one, "a" (or "an" depending on the noun in question, although not in Chloé's case). A sheep. A car. A juice.

We have lots of verbs. Sit, wash, walk, go.

We seem to have some confusion with "Chloé." She understands that it's her name, and she uses it appropriately to tell us what she wants (or to remind us that something is hers). Chloé sit. Chloé walking. Chloé cookie. But she also uses it to express her frustration (she wants to, say, get up and run around during a diaper change and we won't let her): Chloé! I'm assuming she's just repeating what we say to her when we're frustrated with her - her name. So I'm trying to explain to her that her name is not a word which generally expresses frustration, it just expresses our frustration. She needs to say, "Mama!" in that same whiny tone instead.

And, still, we have sentences, paragraphs, and lengthy monologues of indeterminable meaning. Often I can guess from a word here or there what she might mean, but sometimes there's nothing, nothing at all, and I have to react to something out of the environment that she might be commenting on.

Just when you thought you were getting the puzzle pieces put together, someone gives you a new puzzle. Or a child.