Mara is just beginning to understand relationships between people and to understand that people can be identified by more than one relational descriptor.
For example, she is beginning to understand that Daddy is not only “Daddy,” he is also “Daniel,” Mommy’s “husband,” and Grandmom’s son. This is still a relatively new concept for her, so we continue teaching, as she continues to learn.
On Monday Daniel’s mom was in our back yard with Mara. The neighbor lady was outside, and Grandmom asked, “Is that your neighbor?”
To which Mara replied firmly, “No, it’s not neighbor. It’s Liz!”
We laughed and tried to explain that she is our neighbor and her name is Liz. Liz is always tickled that Mara remembers her name, so she thought it was cute.
Around 9 p.m. after Daniel came home from work, we were out back again, and Mara was lying on her tummy on her little picnic table, with her head propped in her hands, when Liz came out in the yard again.
“Liz?” Mara called out. “Are you our neighbor?”
She wouldn’t take our word for it–she had to go straight to the source!