It's not what you say ...

It's not what you say ... but how you say it! 

Advice so true throughout life ... but more amusing when you listen to the little people trying to express themselves!! Abigail is such a chatterbox at the moment and is mad about talking, reading and writing. I can't tell you how many times I've had to write out the alphabet in dots for her to 'write her letters' as she she puts it!

Singing the alphabet is also a favourite pastime right now ... but as with many children I've heard, while most letters have their own sound L, M, N, O and P become one long sound and almost one letter in it's own right!!

I read recently in a parenting magazine that if by the age of three your child doesn't have 20-30 words that they use regularly they may have some developmental problems ... we definitely don't have that issue here. What I find most endearing is the way Abigail has changed some words and phrases to develop her own little way of saying things ... and I know I'll be sad when the day comes and she corrects herself and they all slowly disappear!

Here are just some of her little words and phrases that make me smile ... Complete with translation if it's not immediately obvious!! Sadly some have already disappeared.

• Abi dude it - Abi do it
• socks-sidge - sausage
• lie-lin - lion
• colour-ling - colouring
• efferlent - elephant
• What it is? - What is it?
• It's looking a bit 'froggy' outside - foggy
• Wha' you say? - What did you say?
• Bye bye bodies - bye everybody
• I've got a 'nogey' - bogey
• I can't how to do it  - I don't know how to do it
• No please mummy - no thank you mummy
• The last day - the other day or last time

After just a week of coming home from the hospital, Naomi was renamed 'Nomi' by Abigail ... that one has stuck for her and the rest of us ... I can see Naomi going through her whole life being called Nomi by her nearest and dearest now thanks to her big sister!!