Friday's Five: Baby Talk

In preparation for Junius's kindergarten debut in August, we had our parent meeting last night at his school. I was doing fine until the principal stood up to say a few words at the end of the group session before sending us off to see the classrooms. "I used to be a kindergarten teacher," she said. "So I know what it means that you are trusting us with your babies." At that point, the tears started to well up in my eyes.

"But while they're here with us," she continued, "we promise to take very good care of your babies and to honor the trust that you're placing in us." I was already fighting hard against the tears when I made the mistake of looking at my girlfriend across the room -- her younger son is starting kindergarten this year, too, and her eyes were red and wet as she held her "baby" in her lap.

Deep breath.

So in recognition of the fact that my baby is about to be a big-boy-kindergartener, I share with you five of vestiges of his baby voice that still linger in his speech. Most of the time, he talks like a big kid -- but there are a few words that he still says in his own funny little way and I'm so glad he hasn't outgrown them just yet.

1. Funiture: I don't know why he never puts the "r" in the middle of "furniture," but given our families' love of rearranging rooms, I think "fun-iture" is actually more appropriate. And it sounds adorable.
2. Bery: Somehow, the letter "v" is hard to say at the beginning of words, so it comes out sounding like a "b" instead. It's particularly cute when he says something like, "Mom? I am bery tough and bery strong."
3. Keel: The fact that he's trying to use the word "kill" is less than adorable, but thankfully it takes some of the edge off the word to hear him drawl it out with such a twang.
4. Go infinity...: So this one is a phrase instead of a word, but it cracks me up that he always says "Go infinity... and beyond" instead of the actual Buzz Lightyear line of "To infinity..." I'm not sure how it happened, but even funnier was the very first time he declared it as "Holy Trinity... and beyond!" I'm sure his preschool teachers at Holy Trinity Episcopal would have been proud.
5. Definitely: Here it's not so much the way he says the word as how he uses it. As in, all the time at the beginning of every other sentence. Like, "Definitely I love Buzz Lightyear. He is awesome. And definitely I am bery fast." (And yes, I realized that I'm the one who overuses the word "definitely," which I didn't realize until Juni started saying it.)

P.S. That photo is Junius with my brother at the Super Dylan walk. My boy might be all big and tough, but he still wants to ride on his uncle's shoulders -- so maybe he's not growing up too fast after all.