Wowwipops and Melmo

     Lately Joshua has been running up and down our hallway with a stick shouting "Grabba Grabba".  Bill and I were a bit perplexed.  Was he talking about "Yo Gabba Gabba"?  Hopefully not for all of our own sanity (don't ever watch that show if you value sanity).  Then Liam joined in waving his own stick saying, "Pocus Pocus" and it immediately became apparent. The boys were magicians.
     Every so often, Bill and I channel our inner speech therapists and try to coach the boys into speaking with correct pronunciation and grammar.  We try to teach Joshua that "Pick I up" just doesn't sound right but then he just gets mad that he's still standing on the floor with his hands stretched up to us.  We try to teach Liam to pronounce the L's in lollipop too... but that just hasn't clicked yet either.
     Over the years the kids have come up with some interesting translations.  Often it takes awhile to figure out what they are saying.  I had a friend who was very lucky.  Her preschooler consistently substituted "f" for the tr sound.  Having such a pattern of mispronunciation was probably helpful for her since she usually knew what he was saying... and it was super fun asking him to identify vehicles on the thruway.
     Bill and I have had our favorite mispronunciations over the years.  We still call the remote a "goodmote" and even though Liam now pronounces "oatmeal" correctly, my mother and sister still call it "oatmo".  It's like we have our own secret language under this roof.  I can ask for a "goofier" and Bill knows to grab me a screwdriver. No one in our house knows who Elmo is but we've all heard of "Melmo".
     The other day I happened upon a video clip of Liam reading with his grandmother.  He was wearing the same pj's in the video that Joshua wears now.  I recognized the chubby cheeks of a shorter Liam but I hadn't realized just how much his voice had changed over these past couple of years.  His squeaky voice is gone and now most of what he says actually makes sense.  Sometimes I think it's best not to help the boys with the correct pronunciation.  Who wants to say good bye to that cute squeaky voice that insists on more "miwk".  I must admit, I miss Liam's faintly german dialect, "Put on mine coat" or "I want mine own bowl".  And I think I will miss Joshua's "Pick I up" soon enough too.  So maybe I'm secretly happy that the grammar lessons haven't quite sunk in yet for Joshua.  But just in case, I'll have to make a few videos of him wearing those same pj's.