Tank yew

I have been playing a game with Claire since she was a (very) little girl.

She plays intently with small toys--the lid to a bottle, a hat, Lynn's blood sugar meter--for what seems like an hour at a time. As she plays, I will come up to her, open my hand and say, "Claire may I please have that lid?" At first I had to form my hands into a sort of a cup that she could put the lid into. She places the lid into the hole I have formed, I take it from her and say, "Thank you, Claire!" In response, she immediately reaches to take it back. I give it back to her and we do it again. We play this game a lot.

Over time the game has evolved. I no longer form my hands into a cup, but instead just leave one hand open. Instead of my having to take it from her, she will urgently thrust it into my hand. Instead of grabbing it back, she waits for me to offer it. This is all part of my strategy to make Claire behave in public like a trained seal (Ork-Ork).

Last week the game took a new twist. I was playing it with her and when she took the toy back, she sweetly said "tank yew" and smiled at me as if she hadn't done anything out of the ordinary. We have, of course, been playing this game quite frequently lately. She says thank you, or something roughly equivalent to that, if you play the game with her for about a minute. Sometimes she gets excited and yells "Daaa!" as she hands off the toy, and "Daaa! Dat!" as she takes it back.

Christy, Claire's early intervention therapist independently noticed the same thing from her. This was at the session where Lynn was going to ask whether our kids neither walking nor talking at nearly 15 months was a sign that they would have to take the little bus to school.

Claire uses other words.

• She has said "dada" for a while and has recently started saying "daddee" she says it in all sorts of situations, including ones that are contextually appropriate. So that one counts.
• For months and months, when she is in a situation she does not like she will say, "Neigh, Neigh, Neigh." Lynn says this doesn't count because it isn't a word. I point out that it is perfectly good Middle English, used in a situationally appropriate manner. Lynn says that we don't speak Middle English around her, so it does not count. We are at an impasse.
• When something drops and I say Uh Oh!, she will respond in kind.
• When she finds an item (a book, a shoe, a funnel) that she wants you to read to her, take from her, or notice the importance of, she will hold it up and say Oooo as in "MinnesOOooota." Lynn believes that this is the influence of her Great Grandma Bobbie Betlock.
• Sometimes she just babbles and seems to say the strangest things--about Sarbanes Oxley, or her shoes.

And Sam.... well, Sam knows how to squeal. And he has a nice smile.