From the Mouth of a Big Boy

I love that Elijah is learning to read.

I do not love that in learning to read he is also learning proper pronunciation.

He says, "I will put dis sell on da self."

But when he reads, he says, "I will put this shell on the shelf."

I didn't even realize he never says "sh" and always says "da" and "dis" until we got to those words and sounds in his phonics book, and he pronounced them correctly. It sounded so weird coming from his mouth. It sounded much too grown up for someone who forever and always must stay a little boy, by edict of his mother.

At this point he only says "the" and "this" and "shell" when reading, but I know it won't be long before he talks this way all the time. Sigh. First it's Isaac's smell, now it's 'Lijah's speech. They really do keep right on growing up, no matter how much I wish they'd stay this age forever.