Peapots and daffdobills

I love the way kids develop language skills. We celebrate their first words, and then their growing vocabularies, and then the ways they combine those words. Vi is at the one- and two-word stage, adding new ones very rapidly (porcupine and basketball are impressive recent additions). She has already begun to revise her pronunciation. She used to pronounce "Grandma" as "Mama." (No confusion, because her mother is "Mommy," always.) But now she's saying "Ahma." She's figured out that "m' was the wrong sound at the beginning of the word Grandma. She swallows the "g" which is why it comes out "Ahma" (rhymes with mama). But clearly she recognized the difference and is correcting herself.

A favorite book now is "Peapot." She says it over and over while fetching the book and getting settled to read it. "Peapot," of course, is really "Teapot," as in "I'm a Little...." Some day soon she'll start calling it that. And I'll be a little sad....

Just as I was last spring when Augie dropped the fabulously adorable "daff-do-bills" because he learned to say "daffodils." Sigh. They grow up so fast.

Speaking of Augie, he can talk up a storm when he's in the mood. And while there is a difference in their skill levels because of their age difference, I'm thinking there is a difference in style that will persist even when age is no longer a factor. Example: Ask them, "Would you like some oatmeal." Augie will say, "Oh, YES I do." Vi says, "Yup."