Whiskits!

It's been a while since I posted a "the things they say" type of post. And of course Anya's verbal abilities have been running ahead by leaps and bounds. We have now essentially moved on from her being preverbal, with occasional phrases or words she can say properly. These days the dialogue between Anya and us is basically a true conversation, although we still don't understand everything she's saying (and vice versa, I'm sure) and there's presumably some things she'd like to talk about but doesn't have the words to express.

Of course most of this actual dialogue consists of us asking if she wants x or y and her pointing stuff out and expressing some fairly rote views of it: "Jasper scared", or "Jasper no biting", or "more mato" (tomato). Then again, a sizeable chunk of conversation between Brits and Aussies probably consists of a half-dozen standard comments about the weather, so I'm not sure how much her limited conversational repertoire matters.

Another one we've been hearing a lot is "want whiskits". She loves Weetbix (Weetabix, as they're known in the UK) and I think their crunchy qualiy makes them think they should be some sort of biscuit. So, whiskits. I try to ignore the fact that this sounds like catfood. I think the knowledge might spoil her breakfast.

One other I want to write down and remember: in the bath on Saturday, she grabbed a water jug and addressed a bobbing duck toy: "Close eyes duckie!" This is of course exactly what we say (minus the duckie) when we wet her hair to wash it, and sure enough she proceeded to pour the water all over duckie's head.

The thing that continues to amaze me about this is that it's all imitation. Language -- this mysterious and complex ability that is more or less the best demarcator of what makes us human rather than animal, this phenomenon that continues to baffle philosophers and neurologists -- is to her a fun game, part of her imitative love of repeating adult behaviours. It's a reminder to me that we're creatures of play as much as reason, and of doing as much as of thinking.