speakin' ease-ay

My days are filled with questions. Not the deep, soul-searching type (those are for night-time bouts of insomnia, showers --my epiphanies often come to me while I'm in the shower -- and driving in the car without children) but the four, almost five-year old types. Miss Madeline is full of questions.

At times I just say, "Okay. No more questions right now. None. I am not answering anymore for a while." I try to be patient most of the time and reward her intelligent inquisitive thoughts. I want her to feel confident asking lots of questions throughout her life; but sometimes her questions don't end and are, at times, impossible for me to answer. And I won't even go into her questions about Satan, our pre-earth life, God's love for Satan, hating or loving "bad guys", etc.

When she isn't asking, she is just plain speaking. (Where, oh where does she get this need to verbalize so much?...It's as if she loves the sound of her voice as much as I love the sound of mine!)

She has a particular voice. It comes with an impediment to R's and some of the Th's....like the word "teeth" is pronounced, "teef." I'm not concerned about her impediment; those are sounds that come by the age of eight. If she doesn't have it then, it will be addressed accordingly. In addition to the R's and Th's, she has a particular way of talking. A cool-cat way of speaking. Cool-cat slang.

For instance:
Come over and sit by me = Come ova and sit by meh.
Do you want a cookie? = Do ya want a cook-aye?
Do you want to watch Star Wars together? = Wanna watch Sta' Wa's togetha? With meh?

She also follows up statements or show-and-tells with:
Pretty cool, huh? (or rather, "pwetty cool, huh?")
Pwetty awesome, huh?
Pwetty fun, huh?
I'm pwetty sma't, huh? (to which I must reply, in total agreement, that yes, she is very smart.)

I can't think of more examples, but it is intentional. It is her personal style, like the way she does her hair with multiple (we're talking at least ten just for the bangs) hair clips in her hair, and the way she loves (LOVES!) Star Wars.

And speaking of Star Wars, she just created a new way of speaking while I was typing this very post. A way of speaking that spans generations now. A way of speaking that isn't so much invented as is discovered, and maybe more learned: impersonating Yoda. She doesn't have the speech pattern yet, just the voice. Pretty good, too.