She also uses the word "sorry." A lot. Every day. She uses it no less than 10x a day, but probably much more than that. She uses it when she has nothing to be sorry about, and no need to apologize. I wonder if it is genetic because I apologize for things that aren't my fault, or that I have no control over. I know I use the word a lot.
As with anything you're teaching your child she first started using it with prompting from us, "Kayla say you're sorry" and she would sign it, which led to signing and saying it, and now just saying it. She's been saying it for several months now, sometimes in the right context, sometimes not so much.
I think she uses it sometimes as a way of saying "excuse me" - if she's trying to get through a group of people she squeezes her way through legs and furniture while saying "sorry!" She uses it when she's underfoot and in the way (for instance in the kitchen, which is already small enough with one person in there, if you turn around and bump into her).
She says sorry to inanimate objects, "sorry baby." Or the time we were in her room and she walked on her hat. "Ouch! (pause) sorry hat" - did I get a laugh out of hearing her say that!
Then there are the times she should use it when she doesn't. Kayla has a tendency to be all arms and legs and flings her limbs every which way, usually making contact with some part of your body, especially when she's trying to sit in your lap. It's not uncommon to get an arm, hand, elbow to the face, foot to the stomach, knee to the groin - you get the picture. We exclaim, "ow!" and she asks "okay?" instead of apologizing for knocking your teeth out. At least she shows concern and asks if we're ok though!
One day we were in her room and she inevitably got me somewhere with some part of her body. I said "ouch" and she asked if I was ok. I said "no, that hurt." Then I tried, "when mommy says ouch tell mommy you're sorry."
It wasn't but a few seconds later when she stubbed her own toe (or something) on the glider and said, "ouch!" followed by "sorry mommy!" I had tears rolling down my face because I had just finished telling her to say "sorry mommy" when I said ouch so I guess she figured she should say it when she said ouch too. For weeks after that I would hear "ouch! sorry mommy" anytime she would say ouch. I would hear it when I wasn't even in the room with her. She's been better about not saying "sorry mommy" all the time, but as I said, she still says sorry. A lot.
I had the video camera on a couple of months ago and you can hear her saying "sorry mommy" when I intentionally said "ouch" just to see if she would say it.
She's such a character!
