Thuper Fantathtic Progreth...

About a month ago, Ruby said the word, "lipstick" and pronounced her 's' the right way. I've adored this last childish sounding pronunciation, but I could see was now capable of making the sound, so I figured I should follow-up with a little reinforcement. So we talked about it and she excitedly said "lipstick" a dozen times. Then we talked about other words, and she was genuinely surprised to find out that some words actually didn't have the "th" sound in them.

After our conversation, she has made quite an effort to pronounce 's' the right way. Sometimes after saying a word the old way, she'll stop herself and say, "mom, I need to say that over again because I need to say my 's' right." Then she'll repeat herself with all the right sounds. Just now, she said "pleath, I mean please, mama? You know why I said that twice, right?"

Here I am in the middle of typing about this, and I said, "no."

"Because I didn't say my 's' the first time!"

I love getting to know my girl. I think she's a pretty hard worker, she loves to try and try and try! She currently has two rows of callouses on her hands from the monkey bars, and she spends lots of time at the piano learning new songs she hears. She taught herself a mother's day song and plays it for me all the time.

The other night, Chris and I were out on a date and the babysitter was trying to put Ruby to bed, but they couldn't find one of her loveies (truth be told, it was a beanie baby that she'd bought at a garage sale less than 8 hours earlier, so I hardly think it was a real attachment, but the sitter knows my rule* so she was doing her best to find the silly thing). So after searching high and low, Ruby told Julia that they needed to say a prayer. Ruby said her sweet little prayer, knowing that she'd find her lovey, and she did! I love these little glimpses of her HUGE faith, and her growing trust in her Father in Heaven.

* Every time I pick up a babysitter (we use them a lot), I let them know that they have my permission to spoil my kids while I'm gone. I tell them, "ANYTHING my kids want when I'm not here that will make them happy is your first priority." I'd rather come home to my kids feeling happy and loved, sitting on the couch at 11PM watching television than sound asleep having cried for two hours wanting me. The good news is that my kids don't know about the rule, and they are used to a normal/strict bedtime routine (they never (ever) come out of their rooms asking for a drink or whatever), so they do just fine. (There was one time when a sitter had Ruby up at 11pm watching a movie, and I laughed about it, but in that case, it was a sitter problem, not my child's request) Occasionally, one will request to fall asleep in our bed or something, and I think it alleviates some stress for both parties if the sitter can just roll with the request. I just assure them that my only requirement is that they are happy while I'm gone. What if my kid had an ear infection and was crying and wanted to be held, and the sitter was militant about bedtime!? I just like having the spoil them rule for the off chance it would come in handy.