Sticky Tongue

Kids are fascinated by my stutter.


They find it quite interesting and often quite amusing, and not in a nasty way either.


"You talk funny!"


Not all of them directly ask me about it but I know they are just dying to race over to their folks and ask about why I talk differently.


And I can't actually tell you why I stammer. Or else I'd have to kill you.


Nah, not really. I've stammered and stuttered for as long as I can remember. The only times I don't get stuck is when I sing, and then I have rhythm and breathing to aid me. It has been suggested to me that I sing my way through the day. Sorry, I'm not Doris Day. In soooooo many ways....


I've been for therapy, both speech therapy and hypnotherapy. Neither has been much help, maybe I'm just lazy. Or impatient. When one is trying to have a decent serious conversation one doesn't feel like sloooowing down, taaake a breath, breeeeathe out and slip the words gently out.
And forget about having a good argument. Mind you, one of my friends who has known me forever laughs when she tells me I speak real fluently when I'm mad! Just get mad, Judes! Yeah, maybe if I had PMS every day but, luckily for The Darling Husband, I don't.


My sweet little godchild followed me into the kitchen one day while visiting with her folks and asked me a question. I was answering her but was getting stuck on a word. She very gently came and held my hand and sweetly encouraged me with her big eyes and said "Yes..? What is it..? You can say it!" She is 3.


And last night my sister phoned me up laughing over the telephone and said she just had to tell me this. 


Her nephew, who attends the same creche that The Boy does (all the cousins seem to find their way into this same school. A jolly good endorsement, if you ask me.) Anyway, after seeing us all at various family functions he was still trying to connect the dots and and asked his mom who I was. 
"Thats Lukey's mama" his mom answered, probably wondering where this was going.
"I saw her talking to Lukey', he told her," but the words must have been quite sticky as she couldn't say them properly"...!


Quite cute, hey?


My Boy even helps me out every so often by prompting me. If I'm saying a word with a P he'll start softly saying " Pppp..." to get me rolling, sometimes the poor child goes through the whole alphabet waiting for me to get it out.


He is also now getting into the sometimes annoying habit of trying to speed me up by saying "Hmm..? hmmm...? ...hmm? ". Maybe I'm teaching him patience.


I have despaired of not being able to read my child a story, or at least one that doesn't take me forever to read and by the time i have finished he would've fallen asleep out of sheer boredom. But I decided to take the bull by the horns and jump in. Just do it. Breathing and going slowly helps a little. But the Boy still wants to skip ahead 3 pages so I'm not sure if its me he's bored with or just impatient to see all the pictures.


I'm trying to teach him reading etiquette.
At least wait for Mama to get the first sentence out before flipping to the next page. And I can't see the words if your golden little head is bobbing across the page in front of me.


I love reading (not that I've read a book since the Boy came along) and I love how my mom instilled a love of reading into us by sharing the classics like Peter Pan, the Giant Peach chap, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Watership Down. Not to mention all the horribly funny Roald Dahl books.
I can't even begin to name all the books she read us but she was dedicated in her quest to light up our imaginations and not let us just go sit in front of the box! I would really like to do that for Luke, its a great gift.


Although I just might have to invest in some cd audio sets to do it for me from time to time!