Yeah! Same kind of thing. My sister's kid would do it also for fairly minor things that had just become frustrating, like if they couldn't get a container open, or the clothes wouldn't fit on the Calico Critter, etc. They'd try, but then as they got frustrated, before they reached the point of actually crying about it, they would bring it over and present it to Dada and say "oh no wha happen!" And he knew he should give them his full attention as if they'd started crying, and comfort them in addition to solving the direct problem. It wasn't grammatically sophisticated, but it was very effective communication.