Cognitive Development
Today Small Ball arranged words to express a fairly sophisticated concept for a not-yet-two-year old. We were in Joanne's and she called a blue ribbon flower a hair bow. I said no, it wasn't. A little bit later when the blue ribbon flower was being discussed again she said "blue flower not hair bow. This [pointing to the hair bows in her hair] hair bow."
A little bit later, she was talking about her daycare. Some of the time with "yes/no" questions, we haven't been sure if she's answering the question with meaning or just responding to the structure of a yes/no question. But within the past week (when she's started using demonstrative pronouns consistently and accurately), it's become clearer that she's answering deliberately. So when she started talking about daycare, I asked if the other toddler her age was her friend. We know from various daycare interactions that he is, and she answered a clear "yes." There's another child who she's started mentioning recently in a not as happy with way (most recently she seemed very upset that he had two balloons at a birthday party that may well have been his birthday party). I asked if the other child is her friend. She responded with a very strong, very deliberate "No!"
It's weird to me that Small Ball has a concept of friendship. She's gotten along with all the other kids we've seen her interact with one-on-one, but at her age, she's mostly doing parallel play. It seemed more like an alliance of littleness in the world of big people then anything genuine (albeit cute to see). Her dislike of this child is the first clear sign that she's liking/disliking people based on something more than relative size.
Of course, now I'm wondering why she doesn't like this child. She got into a physical fight with him once, so I don't know if it's recent. The little we've seen of him, he's perfectly nice and polite (when she was a baby, she sneezed and he responded "bless you, baby" it was adorable!). It's a glimpse into this whole world of daycare social interactions that we don't know anything about.
A little bit later, she was talking about her daycare. Some of the time with "yes/no" questions, we haven't been sure if she's answering the question with meaning or just responding to the structure of a yes/no question. But within the past week (when she's started using demonstrative pronouns consistently and accurately), it's become clearer that she's answering deliberately. So when she started talking about daycare, I asked if the other toddler her age was her friend. We know from various daycare interactions that he is, and she answered a clear "yes." There's another child who she's started mentioning recently in a not as happy with way (most recently she seemed very upset that he had two balloons at a birthday party that may well have been his birthday party). I asked if the other child is her friend. She responded with a very strong, very deliberate "No!"
It's weird to me that Small Ball has a concept of friendship. She's gotten along with all the other kids we've seen her interact with one-on-one, but at her age, she's mostly doing parallel play. It seemed more like an alliance of littleness in the world of big people then anything genuine (albeit cute to see). Her dislike of this child is the first clear sign that she's liking/disliking people based on something more than relative size.
Of course, now I'm wondering why she doesn't like this child. She got into a physical fight with him once, so I don't know if it's recent. The little we've seen of him, he's perfectly nice and polite (when she was a baby, she sneezed and he responded "bless you, baby" it was adorable!). It's a glimpse into this whole world of daycare social interactions that we don't know anything about.