Breakpast, Paper Toilet, and Nilk

Learning to talk correctly is hard enough for any kid. Learning to talk in a household where Mom and Dad think the mistakes you make are so adorable they refuse to correct your mistakes is ever harder. Heh, heh, heh.

I love the way kids say things. Just last night I listened as my 2 year old called my husband Chuckles - with no "l" of course. It got me thinking about all the other mistakes my kids make...and how I've yet to help them say these things correctly.

My oldest hasn't been a little kid for so long I don't recall much of her slip ups, but there are two I distinctly remember. One involves her Grandpa W. You have to know when this man sneezes, it's been known to reverberate throughout the room. So for more than a year he was known as "Grandpa Achoo." The second memory I wholeheartedly blame on my husband. He loves to sing the most inane songs (ones I completely thought he was making up until I actually heard them on the radio!) and nursery rhymes, and if he doesn't remember the words he has no problem making them up - which is why for an awfully long time M sang the wrong words to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Something about clouds and lights instead of the world and stars.

J didn't say too many things wrong, but he had the most distinct western accent while saying them. Superman would come out with an exaggerated 'A', making him sound like he grew up in the deep South instead of Utah. Perhaps my most favorite, one I never corrected him on, is calling toilet paper "paper toilet." Fortunately he's lived long enough to naturally correct it on his own, but not before teaching his younger brother to say it first.

B is perhaps the most adorable with his speech. He's never struggled with saying "l" or "r" the way his siblings did, if anything he over-emphasises them, but he can't seem to distinguish very distinct sounds in other words. As mentioned in the title of this post, he refers to fingers as thingers. And breakfast has long been breakpast in our house (this one was passed down from M to J and at last to B). These silly things were made all the more noticeable because since the age of three he's spoken so much like an adult (Brent - you always pointed that out to me, rememer?).

And now we have our little A who is quite a mimic and such a willing participant in our family's new favorite game "Make Baby Repeat What We Say". In many cases this is an utter success leaving us all full of giggles. In other cases I worry about what her brothers are teaching her when Mom's not around. For example, a few weeks ago she looked up at me with big blue eyes and a smile so sweet I could taste the sugar and said, "Mom, I fawted." Yeah. I know. The boys received a nice little talking to that day.

Even with phrases like that, so long as she still refers to milk as "nilk" and her toes as "piggies," I'll forgive the former remark.