Thhhhhhhhhbt . . .

This is my beautiful daughter, Courtney. My completely biased opinion is that she is the most exquisitely lovely child I have ever seen! I adore everything about her, from her sweet thoughtfulness to her constant messiness. But I have to write about something she is doing lately that completely tugs at my heartstrings so much that I can hardly describe it! She happens to be one of those little people who struggles, at age 4 1/2, to pronounce words with the "th" sound in them. This has never worried me in the least; in fact, I think it's cute how she changes every "th" into a "f" sound, or a "d" sound (and even in the case of the word "thank" she changes it to an "n" sound!). Her older brothers, however, tease her about it now and then--mostly with affection (by saying things like, "Don't you fink?"), but sometimes with the intention to correct her. Unfortunately, this has made her a little self conscious about her "problem wif 'th's' ". Recently, however, she has discovered that she CAN make the "th" sound if she really tries--which means she sticks her tongue out and says each word with the "th" sound very slowly. Oh, it kills me! It takes such concentration that I just want to tell her to forget about it and go back to saying it the way it comes naturally (at least until the correct sound comes more easily)! But she is very proud of her new ability, and tries it out all the time. In fact, she now thinks she has to use the "th" sound for almost EVERY word she's ever said with the "f" sound! I can't describe how my heart almost burst this morning when she worked so hard to pronounce the word "funny" by carefully sticking out her tongue and saying "THunny!" She's trying so hard to do it right, but in exactly the wrong way! I so want to squeeze her tight and make her stay little and innocent and perfect and uninhibited by insecurities. There's no rush to grow up and "get it right"! My only little girl is just perfect the way she is. Don't you fink?