Isabel is talking more and more every day, and picks up new words at a terrifying rate. She’s also putting them together in new and interesting ways. She sometimes now speaks in sentences, but their grammar is distinctly Isabelian. Isabel herself is never referred to in either the first or third person. Verbs take the form subject verb subject: “Daddy go Daddy.” Sentences having an object drop the verb entirely, as in “Mama: shower” or a newly popular game entitled “Daddy: boo.”

Daddy: boo works like this: Isabel comes down the hall, either of her own accord, or because she is being chased by her mother. I then leap out from a place of hiding and shout, “boo!” After a moment of surprise, Isabel then giggles uncontrollably and runs the other way down the hall, declaring, “Daddy: boo! Daddy: boo!”