We kind of have a curse going on. And I can’t believe I’ve never blogged about it before.

We are really, truly cursed in the grammar department. And if you think I’m talking about my  mistakes and punctuation issues and soppy grammar on this blog then you’re wrong. I’m well aware of my grammar issues thank you very much. In fact, I still have vivid recollections of my first few articles coming back for edits from Elyssa (features editor) at the Herald. It was horrifying — and a total wake-up call to this little newbie sitting behind the news desk.

I would like to say that my grammar improved, but the fact of the matter is, I still kind of stink at it. And unfortunately for you, there is no magical editor who proofreads my blog and sends me back my errors in red for correcting. Bummer (or not … I always hated the editing part of writing articles).

As an aside: The one and only grammar class you have to take as a journalism major at BYU is a TOTAL joke. Seriously. I didn’t learn a thing (obviously) and still got an A. They should send the poor comms students over to the English department and we’d probably all come back crying. The only thing I learned was this: Never forget your AP Stylebook. It holds all the answers. The end.

Ok, wow that was a bit of an insecurity rant about grammar. And I’m not even here to talk about me (but really I am .. because this is my blog and that’s what I do ya knows).

Here is the thing. From the time Shaylie first learned to speak she mixed up every single pronoun. Instead of “I” she would say “my” and instead of “we” she would say “us.” Instead of “she” she would say “her” and other mistakes like his/he etc. EVERY SINGLE TIME. I was totally used to her talking this way, and I always thought she would just outgrow it. I kind of forgot that she even did it until other people would point it out.

The problem was, even as she got older and STILL did it, I didn’t really want to be correcting her all.the.time. I thought that would be so frustrating to always open your mouth and have your mom correcting your words. So I figured she would grow out of it. Problem was … she didn’t. When she started kindergarten she was sent over to the speech therapist at school to be tested for learning disabilities. NO JOKE. I kind of had a panic attack when that letter came home. And I got annoyed in a super self-righteous, defensive parent kind of way (don’t worry, I got over it within 24 hours I realized it wasn’t a big deal to have her do some testing with the speech lady — especially if she could help me fix Shaylie’s major pronoun problems. Well, after several sessions it was determined that Shay didn’t need an IEP (I wasn’t surprised about that) and the teacher raved about how bright she was … but that she really needed to be corrected when she said the wrong words.
So in kindergarten we became the word police and started correcting Shaylie whenever she used the wrong words. At first it was kind of frustrating for her and we had to do it every time she opened her mouth. Now she is pretty used to it and no longer says “my” for “I” and is doing much better with others — but still really struggling with the he/his , she/her stuff. It kind of surprises me that she still struggles with it because she reads so well and communicates well with others … but I guess old habits die hard.
The real problem is this though: Truman learned the incorrect grammar from Shaylie. So now we are having the exact same problem with him. And so now I know to just suck it up and start correcting him right away … but his personality doesn’t take to the constant correction like Shaylie did. And I image we’ll go through the same rigamarole with the speech teacher this fall … here we go again right?

So you’d better believe every time I hear Marilee say “my” instead of “I” I’m already correcting HER TOO. And I think it’s nuts that all three kids are learning the same mistakes from one another instead of learning the correct words from listening to their parents and friends! I’m honestly afraid (and prepared) to think that Talmage’s first words will be “my do it!” because that’s what we’re used to around here.

The language quirkiness doesn’t end at grammar either. There are a few words (thankfully just a few!) that Shaylie created as a baby that have NEVER GONE AWAY. The first one is dotch. This word means “turn” as in “Mom, will you dotch the lights off.” Shaylie had a lot of words that she created as a baby that hung around for a long time … but dotch is one of two that I can think of that never went away. So who else says dotch? Why Truman, OF COURSE.

The second weird word (used by all three children) is brone. This means brought or bringing. WEIRD.

So tonight, when I called “Truman will you bring Shaylie’s bowl of grapes with you when you come in here?” I heard Marilee reply, “No! My brone it!” and she held up the bowl of grapes to show me. Yes Marilee, you did brone it. Thank you.