name game

I noticed a few days ago that Elizabeth seemed to be practising saying her own name. It comes out as "bisbeth" or "bisbet", but that's not bad for this early and such a long name. Today I noticed when exactly she decided to practise her name.

First, context. When we say no to her, it's usually followed by a direction. For example, "No, Elizabeth, don't touch that," or "No, Elizabeth, come here," or equivalent sentences in French.

Well, when I tried to cut her nails a few minutes ago, she told me, "no, Bisbet. No, Bisbet." She did it about four times before I clued in. She associates her name with the word no!

It was really cute, until I realized that I don't want her thinking her name is something negative. So now when I say yes, or I'm not giving any particular direction, I need to use her name too.

It could be worse. The two-year-old we visited on the weekend seems to think her name is "you".