Lara Loves Carousels

Seriously. She's kind of obsessed.

We went to Franklin Square last Sunday, and ever since then Lara has been asking for the carousel non-stop. I didn't even know kids had memories like that! She was rewarded for her persistence today - we went back, and as soon as she saw the carousel out of the car window from two blocks away she started freaking out and neighing at the horses.



By the way, the up-and-down hand gesture for "carousel"? Lara made that up herself. She actually quite frequently uses her own made up sign language to indicate a word that she can't pronounce. Do all kids learn to speak like this? I know some parents teach sign language on purpose, but we never did (brutal truth - I was excited about this idea when pregnant, but flaked when I realized it would require so much effort). The signs are quite specific, consistent, and made up spontaneously.

It's amazing to me to watch language develop in our tiny home laboratory. Watching Lara learn to move around was not nearly as exciting as this is. Granted, some of this might be professional interest... Or would that be linguistics? Hmmm, no, I'm not going to mix my delicious little kiddo with yucky Chomsky... But, yes, shockingly, in the realm of language studies micro and macro alike, Lara is far more fun for me to observe than my ever further delayed dissertation.