Do you see this girl?

Although she might not appear to be the “serious-type,” she is. Lately, she has been working quite diligently on a few things she considers to be character flaws. Notably, she mispronounces certain words, and it bothers her. Lately, she has been keeping a mental list of these words and practices them occasionally. For example:

Last Thursday: she had trouble with the word “crayola.” She practiced a few times and was happy with her progress.

Last Friday: she had trouble with the word “urinal.” (yes, we do own a urinal, more on that in a future post). She practiced the word, threw in a few “crayolas” for good measure and was happy.

Last Saturday: trouble with the word “developed.” We heard her in the backseat of the car…very quietly…”crayola, urinal, developed, crayola, urinal, developed.”

If this were our idea, we would be chastised for pushing her too hard! But, I swear, this is all Geetle. On Saturday, after hearing her hushed practice in the car, we told her she was a very good speaker and could someday get a job talking on the radio. She got embarrassed and would not answer us.

Its a funny stage of life. She speaks very clearly and the words she messes up are hard ones. We have never made a big deal of it, we just tell her the correct way to pronounce the word. Although she will wear a lopsided rats-nest ponytail for days or her shoes on the wrong feet, there are some things she is a perfectionist about. I wonder what that means for the future.