Me talk prettier
I noticed very recently that Devon is getting much better about pronouncing words; she's beginning to hear more subtle differences in them and then try to repeat them. A few of her regular words are definitey becoming more like English and less like baby babble.
Playground: (old) Pay (new) Paygroun
Water : (old) Wawa (new) Wa-er
Yogurt: (old) Yoyo (new) Yoert
It's quite fascinating to see this development, and it's been so subtle that I didn't realize until very recently that her pronounciation was better.
She's also become quite a copycat. We walked over to the playground today on 12th Ave -- this is an older SF playground with sand (not the new padded stuff) and old-fashioned swings, slides, etc. A man was with his two children in the swings and Devon wanted to go on the swings too -- and she wanted the swing right next to them. These kids were giggling away because their father was making funny faces at them; as soon as we got in our swing, Devon started giggling too. Not because I was doing anything to laugh but because these other (somewhat older) kids were doing it. Throughout the time we were swinging next to them, she'd often copy their reactions (the father was really making them laugh and yell -- he was a tough act to follow). Then when she decided that she wanted to get out of the swing, she also wanted them to get out of the swing at the same time (she's become little Miss Bossy -- she's constantly trying to dictate our lives).
Elaine mentioned to me the other day that when the boys come into her daycare, the first thing they do is run around and knock all of the things off the shelves. I picked Devon up the other day and as we were leaving, she started to knock things off the shelves as well. I can see how peer pressure can be a powerful thing starting at a very young age. A while ago my friends Jason and Yoriko told me how they got their daughter to start sleeping in a separate room from them. They had prepped a room for her with a bed, toys, etc. -- setting the bait, if you will. But they didn't end up doing any more than that, because apparently one day at daycare their daughter let it slipped that she slept in her parents room, and one of the older kids said, "That's for babies!" That night Lanhka decided that she was going to sleep in her own room -- she moved across the hall and never looked back. I think she was about 3 years old or so at this point, and I was astounded how effective peer pressure was at that age. I think we're just starting to feel the impact of it on Devon now.
I also noticed one more interesting thing, namely how there is almost an osmosis effect for certain artifacts of our culture. Devon hasn't really watched any TV, since she was sleeping in the same room as the TV in our studio -- so no evening TV and who watches anything in the daytime anyway? She does, however, know what a TV is; when Walt unpacked it the other day, she ran over, turned it on (snow -- see my earlier post about no cable connection) and said, "TV!" I don't know how she even knew what it was, since we haven't watched it in ages. Then today I bought her some crayons in one of stores down the street; they happened to be cobranded with the "Finding Nemo" movie. When I unwrapped them and she started to draw, she noticed the label on the crayons, pointed to it and said, "Neo" (which I assume was her version of Nemo). I was astounded -- maybe she could pick up the concept of TV through ambient conversation, but the "Finding Nemo" movie? How do kids even hear about this stuff?
A side note on the house (mercifully no huge issues today -- and Walt even got a bar up in the closet so I'll finally be able to unpack some of my clothes)... the walls in this place are totally uninsulated, so we can hear just about everything that's going on in the Russian's flat below. They have two habits that are driving Walt close to insane: they are serial TV watchers, those people who have the TV on as background noise day and night. We always hear a hum of TV when they're home. They also listen to excruciatingly bad Russian music; tonight we're being treated to a serenade of Russian pop hits. If you've ever hear European pop music, you know how awful it can be. For Walt in particular it's like hearing nails on a chalkboard.
Playground: (old) Pay (new) Paygroun
Water : (old) Wawa (new) Wa-er
Yogurt: (old) Yoyo (new) Yoert
It's quite fascinating to see this development, and it's been so subtle that I didn't realize until very recently that her pronounciation was better.
She's also become quite a copycat. We walked over to the playground today on 12th Ave -- this is an older SF playground with sand (not the new padded stuff) and old-fashioned swings, slides, etc. A man was with his two children in the swings and Devon wanted to go on the swings too -- and she wanted the swing right next to them. These kids were giggling away because their father was making funny faces at them; as soon as we got in our swing, Devon started giggling too. Not because I was doing anything to laugh but because these other (somewhat older) kids were doing it. Throughout the time we were swinging next to them, she'd often copy their reactions (the father was really making them laugh and yell -- he was a tough act to follow). Then when she decided that she wanted to get out of the swing, she also wanted them to get out of the swing at the same time (she's become little Miss Bossy -- she's constantly trying to dictate our lives).
Elaine mentioned to me the other day that when the boys come into her daycare, the first thing they do is run around and knock all of the things off the shelves. I picked Devon up the other day and as we were leaving, she started to knock things off the shelves as well. I can see how peer pressure can be a powerful thing starting at a very young age. A while ago my friends Jason and Yoriko told me how they got their daughter to start sleeping in a separate room from them. They had prepped a room for her with a bed, toys, etc. -- setting the bait, if you will. But they didn't end up doing any more than that, because apparently one day at daycare their daughter let it slipped that she slept in her parents room, and one of the older kids said, "That's for babies!" That night Lanhka decided that she was going to sleep in her own room -- she moved across the hall and never looked back. I think she was about 3 years old or so at this point, and I was astounded how effective peer pressure was at that age. I think we're just starting to feel the impact of it on Devon now.
I also noticed one more interesting thing, namely how there is almost an osmosis effect for certain artifacts of our culture. Devon hasn't really watched any TV, since she was sleeping in the same room as the TV in our studio -- so no evening TV and who watches anything in the daytime anyway? She does, however, know what a TV is; when Walt unpacked it the other day, she ran over, turned it on (snow -- see my earlier post about no cable connection) and said, "TV!" I don't know how she even knew what it was, since we haven't watched it in ages. Then today I bought her some crayons in one of stores down the street; they happened to be cobranded with the "Finding Nemo" movie. When I unwrapped them and she started to draw, she noticed the label on the crayons, pointed to it and said, "Neo" (which I assume was her version of Nemo). I was astounded -- maybe she could pick up the concept of TV through ambient conversation, but the "Finding Nemo" movie? How do kids even hear about this stuff?
A side note on the house (mercifully no huge issues today -- and Walt even got a bar up in the closet so I'll finally be able to unpack some of my clothes)... the walls in this place are totally uninsulated, so we can hear just about everything that's going on in the Russian's flat below. They have two habits that are driving Walt close to insane: they are serial TV watchers, those people who have the TV on as background noise day and night. We always hear a hum of TV when they're home. They also listen to excruciatingly bad Russian music; tonight we're being treated to a serenade of Russian pop hits. If you've ever hear European pop music, you know how awful it can be. For Walt in particular it's like hearing nails on a chalkboard.
posted by Devon Szalva at
8:15 PM
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