On the rest of today...

[conuly]

We went to the SICM as we are wont to do, so that was all right... but at lunch, Ana threw a massive tantrum, where she even threw lunch on the floor and broke the container it was in. (None of it spilled out, so I ate a hearty portion while Ana had her time-out for this).

When her time-out was over, she threw *another* tantrum because she didn't want to wear a smock to eat messy pasta, she didn't want to put her feet off the chair, and she didn't want that lunch, she wanted some other lunch which we hadn't brought. When I pointed out that her options were limited to "eat lunch or be hungry", she screamed in my ear - and screamed again when I told her we would go home.

So, uh, we did, with Ana screaming all the way to the bus (where she promptly snuggled in my lap and tried to fall asleep). Frankie's mother seemed surprised that we were actually leaving, but she always irritates me the way she tells her kid they'll leave if he doesn't mind, and then doesn't leave. (And then complains that he doesn't listen. I suspect he doesn't listen for the same reason I don't listen - he knows she has no intention of going home because he's running around and wandering off. It's really annoying to me, but I haven't told her, that'd be counterproductive, and anyway, we're not that close. I like her well enough, but that's it.)

And this turned out to be just as well - I had a very nice conversation with an older Chinese women (older Chinese women always seem to love the niecelings. Maybe they just like kids, I don't know) about the mei-tai - she was very impressed that I even knew what one was, she told me she'd had one and that she had characters embroidered on it for luck and health and long life and so on, and that it's good to pass it on to your kids, luckier, and that it's better for the baby (well, I already thought that one!) and all. And then she showed Ana her two goldfish she had swimming around in a shopping bag. Ana was very impressed, as was I.

And then Ana's behaviour other than that one massive tantrum was so overwhelmingly pleasant that we made Jello, with the warning that if her parents decided she shouldn't have any, she wouldn't get any for dessert today - and that I was going to tell her parents all about how she'd behaved today, so they'd be able to decide whether or not she should get a treat. (They did, apparently, so that was good.)

A note about the God Panties story - Ana's *actual* sentence structure varies from what I reported in my post. For example, she said "I told church that God made everything". However, I wrote it down in translation because I figured that it was easier for youse guys to understand that way.

I don't know why Ana does that. She also will say "I told my mommy that I can have the cookie" when she means "My mommy told me that I can have the cookie" and so on. Any ideas?

Another note: I'm getting a lot of attention for that mei-tai lately! Yesterday, in response to somebody asking me about it and then saying that "Well, my kid is 14 months, so she's almost too big for it", I hoisted Ana up and made her demonstrate how she can be carried around that way. Ana wasn't too happy about this, but I made my point better than my usual method of pointing and telling people :)

Comments

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

I don't know what the actual/exact reason for the sentence structure is, but my niece did it too. She would often come up to me and say, "Pick you up?" or "Want me hold you?" Her mom and I assumed it had something to do with her learning by repeating what she heard. We would ask her, "Do you want me to hold you?" or similar questions, and she knew this resulted in her getting held. But she didn't know how to reverse the sentence structure so that she was the one asking to be held, or even know that it was necessary to change the structure. She associated those words with her goal. I don't remember when that changeover in language understanding came.

[leora.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I was going to say, except without the personal experiences. It's probably much the same way many babies use the word "mommy" to mean, "I want something". Because mommy is diaper change, food, hugs, etc. The switch of you/me is well known for being difficult for kids. Both because they don't realize at first that those words are referants that vary and thus need to be changed, and because perspective takes time to build up.

One of the classic experiments to see how well children understand someone else's perspective is to ask them to show a picture to someone. When they are very little, they generally hold it so that they can see it. As they get older, they take more care to make sure the other person can see it.

Even my nephews, in kindergarten and Elementary School, seem to have gotten confused when I asked them to give something to my father, rather than asking them to give it to their grandfather.

Basically, I think it's just actually difficult to catch on to these sorts of things. Fortunately, kids do it anyway.

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

ROFL The image of Ana being made the visual guinea pig is just too funny LOL. Though it's only fair she work with you given the innumerable times you've had to "look in the shoe, Connie!"

[conuly]

She sighed, your put-upon daughter.

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

I don't know what the actual/exact reason for the sentence structure is, but my niece did it too. She would often come up to me and say, "Pick you up?" or "Want me hold you?" Her mom and I assumed it had something to do with her learning by repeating what she heard. We would ask her, "Do you want me to hold you?" or similar questions, and she knew this resulted in her getting held. But she didn't know how to reverse the sentence structure so that she was the one asking to be held, or even know that it was necessary to change the structure. She associated those words with her goal. I don't remember when that changeover in language understanding came.

[leora.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I was going to say, except without the personal experiences. It's probably much the same way many babies use the word "mommy" to mean, "I want something". Because mommy is diaper change, food, hugs, etc. The switch of you/me is well known for being difficult for kids. Both because they don't realize at first that those words are referants that vary and thus need to be changed, and because perspective takes time to build up.

One of the classic experiments to see how well children understand someone else's perspective is to ask them to show a picture to someone. When they are very little, they generally hold it so that they can see it. As they get older, they take more care to make sure the other person can see it.

Even my nephews, in kindergarten and Elementary School, seem to have gotten confused when I asked them to give something to my father, rather than asking them to give it to their grandfather.

Basically, I think it's just actually difficult to catch on to these sorts of things. Fortunately, kids do it anyway.

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

ROFL The image of Ana being made the visual guinea pig is just too funny LOL. Though it's only fair she work with you given the innumerable times you've had to "look in the shoe, Connie!"

[conuly]

She sighed, your put-upon daughter.