Too Cute to Let Go

Since before she was two, people have been commenting on my daughter's unusually advanced language skills. It's not just her vocabulary, which is impressive, but also her understanding of syntax, which has always been even more impressive.

It isn't surprising at all, considering that she comes from a long line of self-proclaimed Grammar Snobs. And it's not that we've ever gone to any special lengths to correct her speech - she has just always picked it up really easily. But even as advanced as she is, there are still some words that she can't quite pronounce correctly. She is still just three, after all.

Some of them are simple mis-pronunciations, like this one:

"After-tising"

Some are more of an abbreviated mish-mash:

"Hand-zitizer"

Some are more practical translations:

"Jump-oline"

And some are just plain adorable. Like my personal favorite:

"Awesome-us Prime"

Of course I want to help her learn whenever the opportunity arises. But cuteness like this is just hard to correct, and part of me is always a little sad to see it go. (Even now, after my son has learned how to correctly pronounce "helicopter" I still often think of it as an "apu-totter.")

The truth of it all is that it's hard sometimes to be forced to let go of your babies and watch them grow up. (This is something I'm sure we'll revisit again. I find that I'm increasingly melancholy as we rapidly approach my son's first day of kindergarten.)  But like it or not, grow up they must.

So this is me cherishing the moments, and the cuteness, and trying with all of my might to preserve every bit of it that I can.