Sometimes a cat is really a seal, but who am I to judge?

Kara, her cat, and Larry Boy

Certainly, all kids get things wrong.  Some words are just hard to pronounce and/or not memorable.  But, sometimes the errors are just endearing and even though I know I should, I just don't have it in me to correct them.  That is why my 4-year olds often call umbrellas "gorillas".  It is also why Kara is very attached to her toy cat, which is really a seal.  In the case of the cat/seal, it isn't just a mispronunciation it's a willful illusion on the part of all those she comes into daily contact with.  She received the cat, err seal, two Christmas' ago.  At the time, she wasn't even talking and when her vocabulary did develop, she knew what a cat was well before before a seal (all those trip to the Memphis zoo suddenly don't seem so beneficial).  At some point, she started referring to the seal as her cat.  At first we would gently correct her, "sure Kara, here's your seal."  But, the error persisted.  Then, I started to like that she referred to her seal as a cat.  It was very innocent and sweet.  "Sure Kara, here's your cat."  Jack and Anna then stopped correcting her as well, they just got tired of arguing with her, "it's NOT a seal, it's MY CAT". We all became duplicitous players in Kara's cat world.  At some point she will realize that it really isn't a cat.  Or, maybe she won't.  Maybe she will always look at that seal and see a cat.  She's happy, I'm happy.