Cheethe, Pleathe!

Deborah Jolene

“Mommy, can I pleathe have thome cheethe?”

Ever since Debbie could talk, she has talked with a “lisp,” not being able to pronounce her “sssss” correctly. (By the way, I did the same thing, too.)

Well, she came into the kitchen last Sunday night as I was preparing quesadillas for our supper and she said, “Mommy, listen. Can I pleassssse have sssome cheessse?” She just smiled at me.

I put down my spatula I was using to turn the quesadillas and, pretending to cry, I hugged her and said, “Oh, no!! My baby’s growing up!” She just smiled and said, “I can talk like Thammy now. No, wait…I can talk like Sammy now.”

Andrew walked in at that moment and just smiled knowingly at me. I felt like that is the last “baby” thing she still does, and I don’t think I’m ready for her to out-grow that!

Every now and then she lets it slip, but she has nearly left that part of her “baby-hood.”

Do all mothers feel this way about their “baby”? Why do we want to hold on to their infancy? Maybe it is the need to still feel needed!

We don’t want them to become independent, as we know they will!

But for now, I’ll hold on to every word she says…and I’ll enjoy every new thing she discovers. She’s growing up too fast! Isn’t that what happens, though?