As Baylie’s language skills grow, I’ve discovered a very humorous phenomenon.
We have several classes we attend each week that are great chances to not only teach interaction with other kids, but verbal skills and manners. So I’m often heard saying to Baylor “What is your name?” and “Can you please say hello to Ms.Maria?” or “Say ‘bye bye’!”, etc. The thing I find hilarious is if I don’t preface each phrase with Baylie’s name, the person I am trying to get her to talk to will usually be the one to respond, not Bay. I kind of expect it from kids because they are used to someone giving them the same prompts – but when I say “Say ‘hello'” to Baylie and an adult responds “hello!” it cracks me up! If I just randomly asked someone to say hello or tell me their name, there’s no way they would respond. But put a cute blonde toddler in front of them and they’ll say anything.
I should start saying “give them $5” or “what is your credit card number?” and see what kind of response I get. My luck the plan will backfire and Bay will dive into my purse and start rifling through my wallet for goodies to hand out…