Mind your P's

I've been meaning to do a post about Sean's speech patterns lately but haven't gotten around to it until now.  He's so darn cute learning to speak the way adults do.  There are some predictable patterns and rules that can help you interpret his 2-year-old language, such as, L is often pronounced as a W ("where's Seannie's gwasses?," "Daddly weft us here"), if a word starts with an S-consonant combo, the S becomes silent ("that is a red 'quare," "a 'nake says 'ssssss', "Seannie see a 'quirrel, Seannie see a cool-bus), R's also often become Ws ("that is a wectangle"), or a sort of high-pitched I sound (his new favorite animal is a "woit-hog").  Sometimes its as easy as phonetically pronouncing something your self to see that his pronounciation isn't really that far off-- "Hah-gog" really does sound a lot like "hot dog,"  our rushed version of "Donald Duck" probably sounds a lot like "Gonald Guck" (btw, we have a McDonalds at the end of our street which is now "McGonald Gucks"), dow-sairs is "downstairs,", etc-- once you say his version out loud you realize it sounds just like our version, we just have the benefit of being able to read what letters are involved instead of just trying to repeat phonetically.  And of course in the rules of Seannie's grammar, "You" almost always means "I."  That one often throws guests for a loop.  ("Aub play with you?  Daddy 'wift' you out of your booster seat, Mommy get you more milk.") I can only imagine what our 14-year old babysitter was thinking the time she heard Sean crying from his bed, went into his room and he said "Change your diaper?"

Lately he likes to "do jumps" on the couch before bed, or shoot hoops with Cody ("Slam-dump!").  When Cody tells him he can do 2 more, Sean's newest reply is "Compromise at 3?"  He likes following our conversations and telling us what we're talking about, e.g., "Mommy's talking about a judge!," but when he can't quite figure out the conversation he'll interupt us and say, "What we talking about?"  Every morning he greets us with, "Its Wednesday?"  In hopes that it will be wednesday, because that's the day he gets to see garbage trucks.  Sadly, 6 out of 7 days we have to tell him, "no, sorry, its not wednesday."  He's gotten so used to hearing that now some days he'll say, "It's Wednesday?  No, its not wednesday, its..... it starts with a S? Its Saturday?" 

Sean loves learning about the Presidents.  He now knows "George Washington, John Adams, it starts with a T, Thomas Jefferson and Jamesie Madison" from the beginning, and from the end, "Obama, George W Bush, (skips Clinton), His Dad, (skips a few more) and Nixon." (One time I saw him put a president flashcard in Jamesie's face and say "That's Nixon, Jamesie.") No matter what order you point to George H W Bush, his name is "His Dad."  When we listen to the news in the morning Sean is often quick to point out "That man's talking about Obama!"

 One of my favorite things he does is change the first syllable of a word he's not quite comfortable with yet to start with P.  Why P?  I have no idea.  For instance-- here are some of our favorites:

"Tomorrow" becomes "Po-morrow."
Ms. Teresa, a good friends of ours is now "Ms. Po-resa"
After we check out at Costco Sean asks to hold the "Po-ceipt,"
His favorite animal at the zoo was the "Po-graffe,"
A tomato is a "pomato" which is confusing sometimes because a potato is often also a "pomato."
*Update*: Sean just reminded me of his Curious George story in which workers are taking choco-wats off of a "po-chine."

Of course there are more -- beyond adorable things he picks up and says every day, which are so so so cute I'll never forget them, yet I do, usually by the end of the day.  Its so amazing to see and hear exactly how his mind is working (he rarely keeps thoughts to himself and likes to report nearly everything around him) and learning.    Things he used to say so often I thought I would never forget I already have, a reminder that he's growing up far far too fast.  Now that you've had this Seannie-grammar tutorial, please come visit us and see if you can interpret!