Pronunciation

Ruben's language has exploded. He repeats anything you say (careful!) and sometimes pronounces words in very silly ways. My favorite mispronunciation is Eep-Bup (clean up, wake up). He also has some Italian blood somewhere because suddenly he says Mommy-a, Daddy-a, Junia, etc.

However, he has reached the point in his speech development that he's starting to correct some of his mispronunciations. He now says wa-der instead of wa-wa (water). He can say Du-nee instead of Du-dee (Junie). Other words are becoming more clear, but what is truly astonishing is his ability to string words together in song. He'll say 3 words together in a sentence (usually about some motorized vehicle going somewhere), but he'll sing entire songs. Today in the car he sang Laurie Berkner's Moon Moon Moon like this "moon, moon, moon, sighning bight; moon, moon, moon; sighning bight, moon, moon, moon, sighning bight, moon, moon, moon sighning bight..." I let him go as long as I can stand it and then sing the rest of the song myself and he follows along just fine. The other song that he sings is He Reigns. At first I wasn't sure what he was saying. "Gory, Gory, Ha-ah-u-ah, Rain...Rain" What? He sang this for a few days, and I didn't know what to make of it. Then I stopped listening to him, and realized he was singing this song. I'm sure he first heard it on the radio, because I haven't sung it since we lived in St Louis. The next time it came on the radio, we were all so excited to have put together the puzzle of what Ruben said!

With all his new pronunciation ability, I'm realizing that he's growing into a little boy and isn't a baby anymore. Parts of this are amazing (like the ability to sleep on his own), but at the same time, I grieve the loss of that baby boy I used to cuddle. Fortunately I know we have at least a few more years left of mispronunciation. June still pronounces a lot of Sp's like f's and ar's like u's. Let's just say, I don't like her talking about her SpARkly shoes in public.