babychatter

I hold on to baby language. Often, I'm still using their early mispronunciations long after they outgrow them.

for exampe: Sophia has moved beyond calling herself Phida. I still call her that, and I don't forsee a time when I will stop. It's just too cute.

It wasn't log ago that I stopped using lellow on occasion, even though even Naomi is yelling at me: "it's yellow!"

I don't see any reason to push them toward correct pronunciation too soon, which is probably one of the reasons why Miriam, after showing verbal skills very early, has not moved beyong her peculiar Ewok launguage, which I parrot back to her (I say real words too, don't worry). She's an ewok now, in time she'll be an experienced communicator who can pronounce "I hate you, mom!" with all the icy venom of a surly adolescent, and I'll remember how all she used to say was "tikotiko sssttsssss tiko" and feel nostalgia for these simple days.

I'll drag it out for as long as I can, because no matter what I do, it won't last. Babyhood is so short.

Comments

[Casey]

That's so funny. We call Annie an Ewok, too.

[Jo]

Hee. Tikotiko!

[Susan]

Some of that baby talk might become family words that last forever, although it's hard to predict what will last.

I will miss my daughter's pronunciation of "taski" for taxi and "popiscle" for popsicle.

[Aimee]

My daughter just turned six and while she will still stumble over a tough or new word sometimes, all of her baby talk is completely gone. I love to talk to her on the phone because she mysteriously sounds much younger and her phone voice is so cute. A year ago she still had a few "trouble" spots and I never once corrected her, I really wanted to hang onto those "lello" and the fact that her own name sometimes came out "Webecca." *sniff* A few weeks ago she had trouble saying spaghetti, I'm not sure why since she's said it fine in the past, but she kept say buh-sketti and then getting really mad at herself. I was secretly pleased to hear her sounding so young...