Every child is different, but sashagee says she always notices a change in Laila's behavior after if she's done something to hurt mama where she's more cuddly and gives more hugs. And Laila usually does know what to apologize for even if we don't point it out and will mention it when we say "for?" or something similar. It was just this specific instance that she hit a block.

But it's also hard to tell. Is she just reacting to sashagee's moods and giving more hugs when sashagee seems upset? But she often knows what she's not supposed to do, because when she threw one of her toys and hit me and I said "ouch!" she said "I'm sorry abba" and gave me a hug, and then when I asked her "for?" she said "throwing toy." And just as I was writing this, she was pushing mama with her legs and mama asked her to sit on the floor, and when she apologized she apologized for "kicking leg" (which we never said, so she's not just repeating after us).

On the other hand, she'll still often simply refuse to answer our questions, so it's very hard to tell what she's thinking. Kids are hard.