Baby-isms

Listening to a toddler talk has to be one of the great joys in life. Whether she gets her words right on or miles away, one of my favorite pass times is to sit back and listen to what E has to say.

The other day I was banging around some pans trying to find something in the cabinet. E called from the other room, "Mommy, what was that?" "It's all right," I answered. "I'm just making some noise." She came into the kitchen and patted me gently and said, "It's okay, Mommy. It was an ass-gannet." Huh? It took a minute for me to register that she was saying 'accident.' It was an accident. Later, I tried to get her to repeat the word...I asked her, "Remember before, what Mommy was doing in the kitchen? What was that?" She thought about it for a minute and answered, "A stake." A mistake. Wow. She has a baby-ism thesaurus in that brain of hers.

She even knows what she wants to be when she grows up. To anyone who will listen, she announces, "When I grow up, I can save people in a baliance." She says it with great emotion, like a little actress...and 'a baliance' means 'an ambulance.' E is fascinated by sirens. I think she dreams of being Dora or Diego, saving the world one baby jaguar at a time. Whenever she hears an emergency vehicle, she yells, "I can help!" and runs off in any which direction. Sometimes she grabs the little piece of string she calls her 'rope'. Presumably, she will use this to save whomever is in trouble.

As my husband M has talked about in his blog, I'm amazed at how quickly she is losing the charming little mistakes in her speech. She can sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" perfectly...no more missing words, no more pauses. She no longer calls my friend 'Camera', switching consonants at will. But worst of all, she has lost the extra syllable in 'chocolate.' Sigh. She will be graduating from high school tomorrow...how does this happen? How does the time pass? And WHO TOLD HER IT'S NOT PRONOUNCED CHO-LO-CO-LATE? Whoever you are, you are in BIG trouble.