"I ya you, Mommy. . ."

I've been trying to think of little phrases that the kids say or that they have trouble saying so I could type it in here. You know, when Sierra was little, I was so anal about over-pronunciating words for her so she could say them all correctly. (Yes, other parents told me to let it go and let her be a kid.) Anyway, at an extremely early age, Sierra spoke in sentences and could pronouce each word correctly. I thought she was amazing! Well, along came Mercedes and so I just automatically figured that she would be just as easy to teach. Well, she would never repeat the word after me. (For example, after Sierra would say a word wrong, I would correct her and make her repeat it until she got it right.) I tried that with Mercedes, but she wouldn't repeat it if she knew she said it wrong the first time. Ugh. So, I let it go and now here we sit. lol. She says her "r" like "w". She'll say, "look at th ca-ow (car) over there". Ugh. I try so hard to make her say it correctly, but it just isn't working. For the longest time, she kept saying "d" for her "th's". She'd say, "The udder day. . ." and "my brodder. . .". I had enough and I actually got mad and told her that I know she can correct this and I would make repeat "other, together, mother, father" and any "th" words I could think of and within a few days, she would correct herself if she caught that she said it wrong. It was perfect! So now, Mercedes speaks perfectly other than she still says her "r's" as "w's". I talked with the doctor and Kari (doc) said to let it go as Mercedes is perfect in every other way and that she'll get the "r" sound soon enough. She told me all my kids are so advanced for their ages, that Mercedes will be just fine. **Note: in the middle of the school year, we were told that Sierra was testing out of 3 rd grade!!! She's only in first grade!!** So, anyway, along comes child #3, Lincoln. Well, I thought I'm going to nip this in the butt right away with him and I would get really close to his face and say, "Lincoln, can you say 'carrrrrrrr'?" lol, by gosh, he can say his "r's" absolutely perfect! lol. He makes the most perfect "r" sound ever. I wasn't going to let another child get by with not being able to pronounce the "r". It's just so weird because we say all the time how alike Sierra and Lincoln are. They have the same attitude and everything. lol. It's like Sierra and Lincoln have the "mother/son" relationship and Mercedes and Lincoln have the "brother/sister" relationship and they are willing to get into trouble together whereas Sierra knows she won't get into trouble and won't let Lincoln do something that's wrong. Mercedes will let him do it wrong and then tell me about it to get him into trouble. What a turd.

Anyway, Lincoln says, "I ya you" for I love you. It's the cutest thing! I'll whisper "I love you, Lincoln" into his ear and then he yells, "MY TURRRN" and then he whispers "I ya you, mommy" into my ear and then hollars "MOMMY TURRRRN". We play that game back and forth and then finally I say, "all done!"

Sierra is now reading The Babysitter's Little Sister books. She reads them with no issues and she goes through them like they are nothing. It's crazy. I just keep buying and buying off of Ebay to make sure I meet her needs. I got about15 Barbie books for Christmas and they are chapter ones and she has read all of those, all of the Junie B Jones books, every other chapter book we have and now she's on the Babysitter's ones. Crazy! I'm glad she loves to read so much, though. I loved to read and so I'm glad I passed that on to her. :0)

Peace.