Molly continues to talk up storm.  Now she knows way more words than can be listed.  She will often point at things and name them: a picture of a butterfly (“bu-fly”), her diaper (which she sometimes calls a “BM”), or a stuffed bear, crocodile, etc.  Sometimes she points at something in a way to sort of ask what it is called.  Usually this involves repeatedly tapping the object.  She’ll tap a hair brush until someone says, “brush”, and then she will repeat “brush”. One time Molly was tapping a sort of stamp thing for one of the girls’ art projects, and being distracted and not entirely sure what to call it, I said, “That’s a, uh… thing”.  Molly repeated very carefully, “thing”.  She’ll have to sort that one out over time, I guess.

Molly has finally figured out what to call her sister.  She is “Care Bear”.  Molly is probably trying to say, “Claire Bear”, which we sometimes call Claire.  When Claire was feeling grumpy the other day, she said she does not like being called Claire Bear because a bear is “boyish”.  She would rather be called “Claire Bear with flowers and bows in her hair”.  Molly has not adopted this idea yet.  I was trying to get Molly to call her sister just plain ol’ “Claire” but that hasn’t taken either.  There is always a “Bear” stuck on the end, much to her sister’s chagrin.

Molly is also combining words with great acuity.  She will describe what belongs to who, as in “Molly’s bottle” versus “Care Bear’s bottle” and “Mommy’s shoe” versus “Daddy’s shoe”.  In panic or frustration, “Molly’s bottle” sometimes still turns into “mine!”.  We sometimes have a real, practical conversation, for instance when Molly did not want to carry her stuffed bear in from the car but she wanted me to bring it in, which came out as the pretty clear “Daddy do it”.