5-year-old vocabulary

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon with my youngest daughter's vocabulary. Naturally, there are times when she hears a word that she doesn't recognize. Instead of mispronouncing the new word, she substitutes a similar sounding word that she does know.

This would explain the rather *different* song she was singing a few days ago. From the back of the van, L broke into a very enthusiastic rendition of "Rubber girl! Rubber girl! You are the queen of my world!" This is the 5-year-old version of the Rockband hit "Rebel Girl".

Another example of this substitutionary vocabulary happened this weekend when Mr. at Home's oldest brother was visiting. It had been awhile since the girls have seen their Uncle Howard and even the frequent references to his visit and the reintroduction when he arrived were insufficient for L to remember his name. We went out to lunch together and L managed to avoid saying his name at first, but at one point was tricked into addressing him directly. She stumbled over the name, tried to cover by saying "him", and when finally made to say his name, she said, "Uncle Power?" I think the new name will stick.

Uncle Power and Rubber Girl. It's beginning to seem like we're among superheroes.