This post is very very overdue. Should have wrote about this last summer. We had noticed Ashwini calling the appliance that keeps our food cold, ‘frigerator’. We thought that it had to do with her difficulty with pronouncing certain “R” words. Her teacher (~25 yrs age) was at our house for babysitting and she asked about keeping food in the ‘frigerator’. That solved the mystery about Ashwini’s pronunciation. Ashwini and her best friend Sydney have picked up so many little behaviors and speaking styles from their teacher that sometimes it is hard to figure out if we are listening to Ashwini or Sara. Sydney’s mom made the same observation.

I had an intern (~20 yrs age) in my lab last Summer and she used to say ‘frigerator’, too. Must be a newer slang.


Ashwini will be four years old in another week. When I see her photos like these, it is hard not to think about leaving my job to become a house-husband.