There's something about Phoebe you should know. She is precious when she speaks.
It's true. Really.
I thought it was just me being a biased mommy towards her one and only baby daughter, but just today, a friend told me that she just loved to hear Phoebe talk because it's so darn cute. My mom has told me this before, too, but again, I chalked it up to a doting grandmother. I never realized until I had children how rose-colored those mommy glasses are.
The thing is, Phoebe has several letters that she mis-pronounces. I'm hoping this is just baby-talk that I'm not correcting and not a sign of some serious learning disability or speech impairment. (And if you are someone who knows of these things, please let me live in my naive little world a little longer with my daughter I view as precious and not in need of professional help.)
I know there will come a time when all of these things have been corrected and improved and it makes me a little sad. So I don't correct her myself. I don't know when the last time she'll say, "I wub you" instead of "I love you" will be and by the time I realize she no longer says it, I won't have savored it near enough.
For posterity, here are the letters that she doesn't pronounce correctly.
She says her l's like w's. As in "E-wi" for "Eli", "Bush-wand" for "Bushland", and "wub" for "love".
Which brings me to her v's that she pronounces like b's, but only in the middle of words like "eb-ry" for "every".
Her th's sound like d's. "Brother" sounds like "brudder", "mother" sounds like "mudder", "this" sounds like "dis", "those" sound like "dose"...kind of like she's Swedish. Although the word "things" sounds like "tings".
I vaguely remember the one speech therapy class required for my elementary ed degree all those years ago in college, and I think these are all pretty normal for an almost four-year-old. Not that I choose to believe that my baby girl is in any way normal or ordinary. :)
Like every other child, there's certain words that I continue to let her mis-pronounce. For Eli, he used to say "park" for "part", as in, "That's my favorite park." He also said, "I want to go snoogling," when he meant, "I want to go snorkeling." Phoebe says "pokey-pine" when talking about porcupines (it comes up more than you think), "ur" for "your" like "Dat's ur phone", and "yo-grut" for "yogurt". She's my baby so I love it...and I don't correct her.
And in a few years when she's rolling her eyes at me or not speaking to me at all, I'll pull out this little post and remember one of the things that I found very precious about my sweet, baby girl.
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7 comments:
I just wub that park about baby Phoebe, and how much she wubs her mudder.
XXXnenaXXX
I wub that girl too and the way she calls Lincoln "Baby Wincon" and I hope she always does that.
I'm telling you when she starts school and they refer her to speech just go in there and talk like her and they will it's an "environmentally learned trait".
My favorite though is that she calls me "Sister". I think I will cry when she stops that.
Kendall has already lost most of her baby words and she is younger than Phoebe!! :( She used to say y's for l's which was way interesting! She still sometimes says w's for her r's but that is slowly going away!!! Connor still says one thing that is so cute to me and that is callepitter instead of Caterpillar!! I know at 7 I should totally correct him but it is just so darn cute! And this comes from the kids that actually says library instead of liberry!!!
You're right, that is precious. My nephew said 'pit' for 'put' for a long time, and he still pronounces 'pizza' like 'Pisa'. It's just pweshus!!
After having a child with severe delays in speech I should encourage you as to all the benefits of early intervention BUT I won't pop your bubble at all. HA! Most everything will correct itself within perfect time. Phoebe is a brilliant little girl. How could she not be. Look at her momma! Let the schools do their job and work on her once she is in school. For now, you are right in letting her be 4! I fully encourage you in wanting her to be little and cute and precious in every way.
Mason has the same issues as Cannon did and I am not worried one bit or pushing for speech intervention like I did for Cannon. I don't know what changed in my thinking but I now wish I had waited and not let family push me into a decision I wasn't totally buying into.
Make sure you have it on video. It is great to look back on when they are 13 and marvel at their growth and maybe giggle a little. My girlie had the same issues at that age and there are no problems now. She will outgrow it all too soon and replace it with a good ole fashioned eye roll.
Love your blog, and yes I am a complete stranger!
I just wub dis post!
- you widdoo bwudda
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