As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, my son has developed a language all his own – which I’m sure most preschoolers do – but his is the most special, I promise I remember when I was pregnant and people kept telling me that he would learn to speak so quickly because he had an older sibling. Then, after I freaked out thinking he had developmental delays, a friend of mine showed me a study where they found younger siblings took longer to speak because often the older child did all the talking for them. I don’t know if this is the case for everyone, but my son was not an early talker. What I notice now, though, is that at 3 years-old he uses expressions that his 8 year-old sister says. At first I was quite impressed by his language development, then I realized he probably doesn’t completely understand every word in the phrase – he just knows when to use them.

For instance, when he sees that I’m struggling to do something, he says “It doesn’t matter, Mommy, it doesn’t matter” and shakes his hand so I know it’s okay to give up.

When you give him something that he doesn’t want to eat, he says “I can’t want it.”

If you confirm something he just said – usually by repeating it correctly – he says “Exactly!”.

Of course he says a lot of the typical words that a 3 year-old should say (his speech is a lot simpler in French and Spanish), but these few always make me chuckle – especially after worrying that his speech wasn’t developing as it should. Needless to say, I’m one proud mama

Daughter: Can you spread the cheese on the cracker for me, please?

Me: Why can’t you do it?

Daughter: Because I don’t do it very well.

That is simply music to my ears! Don’t know if my writing conveys this, but I’m a stickler for good grammar. I subscribe to the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar and I correct people when they misplace prepositions. Yes, I’m that annoying person.

I try to cut the kids some slack because they’re constantly switching between at least three languages to communicate. I speak uniquely English to them and when they get stuck, I let them explain something that happened whatever language is the easiest. This works well, but promoting good grammar is tough. Not necessarily with the two year-old who is just now beginning to form sentences with more than 3 words, but I have different expectations for my daughter.

Every time someone asks her how she’s doing, she says “good” and I cringe. She asks me what is written in small print because she can’t see very good and I involuntarily twitch. After my physical reactions, I repeat her sentence correctly and ask her to do the same. This happens over and over again…it’s just become part of daily interaction. So, imagine my delight the other day when she says it correctly on the first try! I mean, my heart skipped a beat I was so happy.

It goes to show that consistency really does pay off. She may be annoyed with me correcting her now, but one day when she’s one of the few people who speak what will probably be called “old school English”, she’ll be in high demand and thank me.