My little man J turns 4 in just under a week, which is hard to believe. It's funny because he's 1 1/2 years older than S (our firstborn) was when we bought our first house 7 years ago. I remember how big Jason and I felt like she had grown. I can only imagine what it will be like to look back on this stage in another, say, ten years.
The other day when he was playing with his sisters I heard him call "Mother Gothel" (from the movie Tangled) "Mother Gobble", which for some reason I just think is the cutest thing ever. He has a very clear understanding that Mother Gothel is bad and likes to say that "she doesn't know best...she knows worst". (In response to the song Mother Gothel's character sings called "Mother Knows Best".)
He also likes to tell us that "Sidwey Wosby from the Pittsburgh Pengwens" is his favourite. And just recently I noticed that despite the fact he can say Nana and Ba, for some reason he can't seem to tie them together and say Banana. It always comes out Wana or Bawana. :)
I've always enjoyed the cute way my children say things as their learning to talk and marvel at the way their vocabularies clean up and those mispronounced words eventually disappear completely. But this time around there also seems to be this realization that he's my "baby" and once he loses all of his toddler vernacular I won't ever get to experience this with another child again. So I guess you could say I've been feeling a bit nostalgic lately. Feeling overwhelmingly blessed to have three healthy children with healthy speech development (something I never want to take for granted).
Right now the cute way J pronounces things is just that, it's cute. But one day the way he used to pronounce things will be a cherished memory. And if we're fortunate enough we may just just get the chance one day when he's a teenager to share those stories with his friends so he can pretend to be embarassed while secretly loving the attention. ;)
