Sunday, February 22, 2009

Perception = Reality

In a lovely Valentine's package from Great Granddad and Bonnie, Clio found a white satin purse embroidered with the word "Princess" in pink, and, perhaps even more exciting, this purse contained two boxes of Mexican candy hearts. Now, we don't really do candy in our house (Clio was full of awe and wonder- and loads of sugar- when she got a heart-shaped lollipop at her music class), but of course Clio wants to have every gift she receives. As the more lenient parent where food is concerned, I figured, what's the harm, really? And, much to Dave's dismay, I told her she could have the hearts after her lunch.

So after lunch, Clio declared she was ready to "do the hearts" and asked for some bowls.


She proceeded to count them, pour them, scoop them, organize them, and have us read them to her.


But guess what? It never once occurred to her to put them in her mouth.


Eleri was another story, though.


Luckily, Clio is an expert at taking things away from her sister, and this was no exception.

This morning, Clio got the heart "game" out again, and we did a little ethnographic experiment, grouping them by saying. Among my observations: there was one "amigo" to three "amigas," more "call me"s than "hug me" and "kiss me" combined, and, interestingly enough, the most common word or phrase in the two boxes was "dulce." When I pointed this out to Dave, he convincingly asked (in front of Clio), "why would this heart game say 'sweet' so many times?"

Why indeed.

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