Teaching our kids to speak is one of the most exciting parts of parenting isn’t it? … Well, that is until they actually start forming sentences, expressing their strong opinions via tantrums,  following you around saying the same things over and over and over … and… well that’s not really the point of this post.

It seems my daughter, now 22 months old, is speaking more and more each day and graduating to sentences quickly. We are still in the “This is so exciting and adorable” stage… so this is all still a good thing.

She says “I’mMaKay” when she falls, “Mama, I love you” just because she does (which I’d love to bottle up for her teen years), there are many things my little princess says… but the one thing she seems to be admittedly refusing to say? Her brother’s name.

It’s not a tricky one. It’s pretty basic… but she flat our refuses to even try- well until recently anyway.

When it came to teaching my darling princess her brother’s name- I tried… I tried hard- especially when I realized his name was the only one she wasn’t saying.

So, every time we would drop him off at school I’d say “Say Bye, R!”….. When we would return to pick him up I’d sing-song “Say R, Where Aaaree Youuu?” Every day we did this for almost a year now- and nothing.

This morning I was awoken to the sweet sounds of “Mama, I love you”, and she started pointing downstairs (where my son was watching his morning shows as he always does). Then she said “Wheyy Arreee Ouuuu?”, in the same sing-song tone I always use when we pick him up for school.

There you are!

“How cute”, I thought!

She obviously knows the routine of her brother waking up at the ass crack of dawn and watching his cartoons downstairs until the rest of us ‘normal folk’ roll out of bed at a (some what) decent hour… and now she’s looking for him.

Precious.

Then later this morning after breakfast-  they were playing their favorite game of  “Lets make Mommy completely regret her decision of buying a house with a center hall stair case by chasing each other round, and round  screaming our heads off like we were at an amusement park”…

and I heard something different. It wasn’t just shreeks and screams of taunting-Mommy-joy…. I heard “Whey-Are-Ouu?….Whey-Are-Ouu?” and the giggles continued.

Clearly, she knew where he was- she was chasing him 2 feet in front of her. So I interrupted their favorite  game as I always do (Yea, Mommy is such a kill-joy) and I said to Princess, pointing at The Complicated Boy “Who is this?” ….. and without skipping a beat she replied “Wheeey-Are-Ouuu???”

((sigh))

… well at least she’s calling him, right?