Mouths of Babes

Ever notice how stuff that would be really annoying if done by an adult is totally acceptable if your adorable kids are the ones doing it? One day, my kids will grow up, and when that day comes, I would hope they know better than to say “suliminable” or “strategery.” But right now, their mispronunciations and malapropisms are the very essence of cuteness.

For instance, today James uttered these words, “It rained-ed-ing on de sidewalk.” Yep, he finally managed to trump Maddi’s double past tense by compounding it with present tense. I’m not even sure what that’s called, except “darn cute.”

Maddux is very conscientious about letting you know something happened in the past. We never hear “James chased me,” always, “James chaseded me.” And from the bathroom, in the loudest voice possible, this classic is heard at least once a day: “Mommy, I makeded a poop!”

In addition to the endearing grammatical gaffes are the myriad mispronunciations which, I’m ashamed to admit, often go uncorrected because we don’t ever, EVER want the kids to learn how those things are really pronounced.

From Maddux (some of these, alas, have gone the way of the dinosaur):

Pobby (potty)
Inwizzle (invisible)
Rincess (recess)
Ghooghy (yogurt)
Bee-nilla
Bee-nana
Vancougar
Girlpants (big-girl underpants)

Courtesy of James:
Cupcakes (pancakes)
Baker (bacon)
Dumb **** (dump truck — we worked really hard and fixed this one fast!)
Maggots (Maddux)
Bopping (shopping)
Girlpants (big-boy underpants. Sigh.)

So many of these are fading into oblivion (hooray for some, but sad to see others go). It’s like I’m losing my little babies! Of course, we still have Thomas, who will doubtless provide us with years of entertainment. (Let’s just hope he can say “truck” and that he knows there are two different genders.) One day, of course, he will be expected to know how to pronounce “nuclear” correctly. (Just in case he ever wants to be preznit.) But for now, we’re curious to see what he’ll come up with.

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