the curious case of the snorting baby

Nell has quite a few words these days.  However, about a week ago she stopped saying most of them and started snorting, instead.  We were a little mystified.  No longer could I get her to charmingly repeat words after me on cue.  "Mama" all but disappeared from her little vocabulary.  Now it's all "ba-*snort*" and "da-*snort*" all day long around here.  Well, she had a cold recently, we reasoned, so maybe she's just trying to clear her sinuses.

And then I realized that she's trying to put ending consonants onto her words!

It may not be the most feminine sound in the world, but I think it has a charm of its own, in a way...