Is one remaining speech impediment too much to ask?

Mary Lynn (the fabulous, the flawless, the freakin' amazing Mary Lynn) just posted a lament for her daughter's disappearing baby vocabulary, which set off a mindstorm of memories and the kind of nostalgia that makes me very bitter because it makes me realize that I am, in fact, just a big fat mom cliché (I remember one of my smug, skinny high school friends as we sat in the downstairs school hallway and watched a very pregnant teacher chugging past. The skinny friend said with a sneer "I'm not going to waddle like that when I'm pregnant". Oh right, pregnant women waddle because they want to, not because they're trying to balance a watermelon on their pelvis without falling on their face).

When Angus was little, he referred to himself in the third person for a while, as many kids do. Then he modified it to "A" (the letter A, rhymes with hay), instead of Angus. His most common utterance, when we were trying to wrest control of his utensils or toys or anything, was "A do it!" He would also say things like "the water was falling on A's head" and "that's A's hat". When I did the laundry I would usually give him a basket of receiving blankets (which we used for everything from kleenex to spill-wipers) to 'fold'. Once we were doing this and he said something about "my laundry". I dropped the pillowcase I was folding, stricken, and said "You mean A's laundry?" and he looked at me pityingly and said "no. MY laundry." Oh FINE -- speak correctly if you must. I was devastated.

When Eve started saying Angus's name she couldn't make the 'n' sound, so she called him 'Agus'. It was very cute. We just got used to it, and then suddenly one day when she was around four, I said to Matt "hey, she's saying his name properly". They were sitting out on the front step eating freezies, and when she came in to throw out her wrapper Matt said "Eve, say Angus". She said "what?" and he said "what's your brother's name?". She looked at him oddly and said "Angus". Then she walked outside and said to Angus "your Daddy just forgot your name."

Comments

Mary Lynn said…
"Your Daddy just forgot your name."

HA! That's priceless.
Rosemary said…
Uh, you made me teary. Holly couldn't say Aidan. It was sort of an A-yin. Now it's an AAAYYYDAN!!! Usually followed by some sort of grunting noise. Ah, the good old days :)
Anonymous said…
It is sad when they outgrow stuff. My daughter says 'do I' instead of 'don't I' (like, "I have a nice dress on, do I?") and I am going to miss it when she gets it right. It's just these little pieces of their babyhood that I'm trying to cling to, but they won't let me.
alison said…
I miss that too. Leah used to ask me to 'put the dark on' when I tucked her in and turned out the light. Sniff. And Rachel couldn't pronounce Leah when she was really little and called her Nunnah. Sigh.

And totally laughing at Eve thinking her dad had forgotten Angus's name.
Julie said…
"I do it by me-self." It's too cute. And all of his "l"s are "y"s. Yellow=yeyow, Lego=yego, etc. One day he will stop this and my heart will break a little.

ha! how's kidding who? when the day comes i will curl up into a little ball and hider under the coffee table sobbing and wondering where my baby went.
Pam said…
Poor Eve, dealing with such difficult parents. Lots of material for her memoirs...
Love the toddler versions of names. We had a "Woe-wa" and "O-wee".
SuziCate said…
"Your Daddy just forgot your name" - love it!
The Mayor! said…
ALLISON! Priceless, I can so see my 4 yr old coming out with that! Love it! I also love your sense of fun, & your honest look at your own personl ups & downs...so I gave you an award for blogging!! Stop by my site to check it out! Congrats, you deserve it!! :-D

http://www.crazytownmayor.com
Shan said…
Oh that is cute, but heartbreaking all the same. One of my good friends is a Mary-Lynne too and my little one has called her Mary-Nin until just recently when she started saying it correctly. I want Mary-Nin back.
Oh boy, you are making me nostalgic for a stage I haven't even gone through yet.
Amber Dusick said…
LOL, forgot your name, that is classic! We are already missing so many things my son used to say. He referred to himself as "baby" as in, "Baby want some dat." Pumpkins were Kummins and Mushrooms were SchroomRooms. I miss all that.
Magpie said…
Daddy forgot your name. I love that.

Mine had trouble with "Yellow" - it was "Lellow" for the longest time, even when other "Y" words were fine. It was like it was on purpose.
Leah said…
Some of the "baby talk" words have stuck around at our house, even though the kids can say them properly now. When my eldest was little, she couldn't say hand sanitizer, and instead called it "hanitizer". We still use it! and my youngest pretty much never said the "s" sound if it came at the beginning of a word. So instead of snuggles at bedtime, we had "nuggles". STill use it! My cousin, Mirinda, also got dubbed "Rinna" by my eldest when she was tiny. We all still call her Rinna (except my eldest, who calls her by her given name now...LOL, but Rinna stuck with the rest of us)

Thanks for stopping by my blog; it was fun seeing a new face!

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