appa vs dad

Yesterday at the doctors, after C refused to take the toy from the nurse, the nurse handed it to me: "Ok, I will give it to you dad!"

C thought for sometime and was after the nurse that "This is appa" atleast 4 times to correct her.  I think C is getting confused with some other kids calling their dads "dad" and thinks that 'dad' are 'those kids fathers', etc.

However, at night, she asked me "are you sleeping, dad?". I tried to explain that appa is tamil and dad is english, etc.