Ellie can talk! What!? It’s crazy! She’s learning words and phrases at an exponential rate which is absolutely amazing to watch. But now that she can speak more, she also understands more. Which sometimes isn’t always the best thing. A quiet mutter of the word “ice cream” can turn into a disaster.

“Ice cream!? Someone say ice cream!? I want ice cream! Ice cream! ICE CREAM! I SCREAM!!!” She’s worse than I am.

So to avoid these situations, Aya has started spelling things out so Ellie doesn’t know what’s going on. But unfortunately it also means I have no clue what’s going on half the time either.I’ve mentioned before about my loss of brain power since being apparent. I mean, a parent. Ugh, see. Anyway, you know that condition that some people refer to as “mom brain.” Well, I suffer from it. Big time. So much so that I’ve been trying to counteract it before I become a complete moron.

For example, I started playing Words With Friends on my phone in hopes to keep my mind active. But it seems most often I just throw letters together in hopes of making a word with a triple word score. “Loit. That’s a word, right? If you can loiter, you can probably loit too, right? No? How about Dloit? Or Gloit?” I’m not sure how helpful this is to my cause.

I’ve also started doing Sudoku puzzles. I think of those as mental push-ups. Even though I think I’m getting better, I can hear my rusty brain gears turning along with my puzzled inner-monologue. “One-Two… where’s the three? No three. Ok (I press the 3 button) Error! Oh, dang, there is a three, oops. What comes after three?”

I’m not even sure I’m playing the game correctly. I wonder if they make Sudoku Puzzles for Dummies. I guess I better pick up a copy. If I can remember. 

Anyway, on top of my already sluggish brain, Aya has now started spelling things out. You know, just the key words that would get Ellie excited like “ice cream” or “cookie” or “strawberry.”Or all the “bad words.” I’m just not prepared for it when she does it. It comes out of nowhere. The other day after dinner she said, “Do you want to go out for I-C-E C-R-E-A-M?”

But what I heard was, “Do you want to go out for I See, Eve… R… A… M?”

I started thinking, “I see? No, you see. Oh wait, she’s spelling again! What were those letters again!? I-C-R-A-M? What the?”

My mind just doesn’t catch up in time. It feels like she’s throwing letters at me and I’m catching them out of order, and then dropping them. I look down at this random pile of letters and play word scramble in my mind. I stare at her with a confused look on my face as I try to guess what she just spelled.

And now it’s not just Aya who’s spelling things out. Some of my friends have kids about Ellie’sage and they have key words they need to spell now too. I’m constantly saying, “What?”

By the time I get the word, it’s long past time for when I should have responded and I’ve completely stopped listening to anything else she said. “D-R-E-S-S? Dress? What about a dress?”

It’s not that I can’t spell, I’m just extremely visual when it comes to spelling. I hated spelling bees in school. Why do you have to stand up in front of the class and pick imaginary letters from your mind? Why can’t you just write the word down? I once spelled “onion” wrong on purpose to be eliminated so I could sit down. I spelled it “U-N-I-O-N.”

The teacher looked at me puzzled and said, “Are you sure?” (I was a good student and to be eliminated on such an easy word would have been out of character for me.)

“Yes, I’m sure. U-N-I-O-N. Onion,” I replied. I was then excused to my seat, which was where I wanted to be in the first place.

It’s just funny that with all this emphasis on spelling right now, just as she didn’t know the words before, soon enough she’ll know the spellings. It won’t be long before she knows what C-O-O-K-I-E means. But for now, let’s just hope she’s as clever as I am.

Now speaking of that K-O-O-K-I-E…

5 thoughts on “SPEAK AND S-P-E-L-L

  1. I did the , ‘Gramps, do you want to take Ellie for I. C. E. C. R. E. A. M. ?’ just this past week. We have found that we have to filter TV, even the news because she picks up on things . Last week she asked for a volcanoe! lol

  2. I always know when you have absolutely no idea what im talkin about….i’ll spell something and there is dead silence on the other end of the phone….glad to hear its not only me you arent paying attention to…=)

  3. Heh, good to know there are other parents out there with similar issues. My husband and I are both visual people, and we’ve given up on spelling the whole word/phrase. Abbreviations are good here. DB= diaper bag (usually signals that we’re going out) FS= fruit snack. McF= well, the blended ice cream treat from “emmm!” as my daughter calls it.
    Best of luck when she starts spelling stuff, too!

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