turtle taw

A conversation a few weeks ago between me, Daniel, and Alyssa, while playing in Daniel's room just before lunchtime.

Jen: Daniel, what do you want for lunch?
Daniel: Turtle.
Jen: Turtle? Hmmm, I'm pretty sure we're fresh out of turtle today.
Alyssa: I really don't think we have any turtle! What else do you want?
Daniel: Turtle taw!

He was pretty insistent, so we headed downstairs to the kitchen. I was hoping I would be able to find him a suitable subsitute for the "turtle" he was craving. But he dragged me to the pantry and pointed at an upper shelf, insisting, "turtle taw!" Finally I lifted him up so he could show me what he wanted. Turns out "turtle taw" is Daniel-speak for "apple sauce".

I pulled out the video camera while he was eating lunch that day so he could tell us about the "turtle taw".



As we have since discovered, "turtle" has a lot of meanings to Daniel, among them apple, potato, and play-dough, as well as other green animals like frogs and lizards. I love trying to figure out how his mind works! It's also amazing just how far his language skills have come since we took this video.