Wha-?????

While a compelling illustration, this photo may or may not identify the person of interest in the below blog.  You have a one in three chance of guessing who it is anyway, friends.

It all started at the Pediatric Cardiologist Office.  One of my sweet little babies and I sat in the waiting room for a recheck a few months ago.  It was 1 year after he or she had left the NICU and the doc needed to do a follow-up echocardiogram to make sure all his or her valves were closing properly.  They were.  That is not the point of this story.

In the waiting area was a well kept tank with brightly colored fish.  This immediately caught baby's attention.  As baby looked wide-eyed at the fish and then at me, I did what all mommies do and said emphatically, "Fish!" and pointed at them.  "Bish!" said baby in a moment of infant brilliance. Beaming with pride, I anticipated telling others of the phonetic aptitude of this little person who had hardly babbled before this time.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.  Praise Baby is in the DVD player and a fish scene pops up on the screen.  "Bish!" says baby.  Then, something surprising happened.  Baby changed the -sh to -tch and repeated it over and over again.  Baby liked the way that sounded better, I guess.

Since the consonant exchange, either Micah or I hear it almost every day.

Something I am learning about triplets ~ When one says something so confidently and assuredly, they all follow suit.  This is particularly funny when one baby screams "Ahhh!" and the others echo back "Ahhh!" ... "Ahhh!".  It happens other times when one baby decides he or she wants "MaMa".  As soon as it is spoken, another baby hears and decides he or she also wants "MaMa" that very same second.  And then the last baby not to be left out joins in, vying for my undivided attention.  They learn from each other.  This new word is one thing I don't want them to learn.  Even though inside I am choking back giggles, no one wants three cursing babies, even if they are really, really cute.

So, say, if you happen to be working in the church nursery or maybe baby sitting or even passing us on the street and you hear the "B" word emerge sweetly from the tiny mouth of one of our littles, please answer, "Yes!  FFFFISH!" and help us out, OK?  ...Unless he or she happens to be identifying dogs by breed AND gender.