Tuesday, April 03, 2007

The Difference One Letter Makes

Ahhh, the language of a budding toddler that tries so desperately to pronounce the words being directed his way.

That tries to be understood.
Imagine how you'd feel if when you'd open your mouth to speak, everyone would look at you like, "huh?"

To quote Chris Tucker, "Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?"

Our Sullivan, being the middle child, has been somewhat delayed on his speaking. Granted our 5 year old is able to decipher the codes of garble that comes out of Sullivan's mouth, but it's a bit challenging for me to figure out what he's saying.

So, I started on this mission-

CONSISTENCY.

Upon every task that I give our little Sulli, I ask him to repeat back word by word what I've told him. For example the bedtime routine. Each and every night bigdogg and I get our exercise by walking upstairs to the boys rooms to remind them to quit talking, stop getting out of bed, "no, you're not thirsty, you're just trying to come up with some excuse to warrant you being out of bed," routine.

Thus began the dialogue of repeat mommy's words.

"Now Sullivan," I say as I tuck him into his covers, "If you get out of bed at all, tonite, than I will have to take away your blanket."

GASP! Cruel! How could you do that to your 2.5 year old? Take away his blanket? Quick, call DCFS, I'm neglecting my children of their comforts!


Whatever.

"Sullivan, I want you to repeat after me, please."

Mommy: "If I..."


Sullivan: "Wiff Ieee..."

Mommy: "get out of bed,"

Sullivan: "geck ou ob bed..."

Mommy: "I will take away,"

Sullivan: "U weill takah ahway..."

Mommy: "Your blanket."

Sullivan: "U bankie." "mee bankie."

By encouraging him to speak, even if it's word by word, I'm helping him improve his speech. Not to mention he's repeating back to me what will happen if and when, he does remove himself from his bed. So in essence it's a win win situation.

For weeks now I've been at this. Surprisingly his speech is improving drastically. Just yesterday as he was patrolling my Uncles truck, he expressed rather loudly, how big UP's truck really was.

"Mommy, wook, a BEEG TRUCK!"

Only he didn't say truck, he said the soap in mouth, sin of a word, that makes anyone stop short after hearing it out of the mouth of babes.

Amazing how different that one letter has.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This morning as my Bigdogg stood outside of the train station waiting for his train, he noticed a woman within the same vicinity of him holding onto a rather large package. He see's this woman every morning. Standing in the same spot, just like him. But until today, he's never spoken to her. As he would tell you, he's never had a reason to talk to her.

Until today.

"Is that your last name, on the return address," He asks politely.


"Why yes, it is," she replies.

The reason he asked, is that he noticed on the address label that her last name was the EXACT NAME as ours. (Something not so common in the most per capitol churches around, that define our little town in Illinois) The only difference was that her last name had one extra N at the end of it.

Bigdog than asks, "Are you Jewish?"

"No, I'm not," she replies, "I'm German."

Amazing the difference one letter makes. Especially when it means the difference between a German and a Jew. That one letter, that one extra N at the end of the last name makes such a profound difference in how you're raised. What your faith is, or isn't, or even the history of that one letter, added or removed, can make on how you view the past.

Amazing that a German and a Jew could actually be talking to each other, as they both wait for their am train to take them into the city.

Never would've happened during the Hitler days.

Amazing that A German and a Jew could be married and still make it work. To overcome the differences that interfaith has in a household.

Is it easy now? Sure it is.

Now, I'm sure there'll be times where we'll be faced with obstacles, but if it's not religion, it's something else. That's just what happens when you walk down a path together. There's always an opinion on what to look at. He may feel that the sky is the best thing about the path, whereas I would rather look at the different flowers.


That's just marriage. No matter how you look at it, there'll always be differences, and if it's not over religion, it may be over how to dress the children. How to raise the children. How to spend the money.

I'd much rather tackle the questions over church versus temple, versus the many other issues that quite a few married couples do have.

Mix in three little boys, and you've got yourself a great recipe of unconditional sacrifices and complete unselfishness.

Amazing how much of a difference that one letter truly makes.

Or does it?????

Do you allow it to make a difference?

Welcome To Crustybeef~
There'll always be differences, but the trick is to accept them and overcome them.

Just to note, yes, I've had to take his blankie away at night. Quite a few times, for that matter. Rome wasn't built in a day, afterall. But at least the foundation has been set for the strong structure we call our Sullivan.


2 comments:

Constance Burris said...

I like your blog! That's all just stopping by to say hi.

CRUSTY MOM-E said...

Thank you Kahnee! Hope all is well and you'll come back for more.
Always,
Crusty