I had to go to the health department to get a TB test to volunteer at Reed’s preschool. The clerk gave them a paper airplane. They are throwing it back and forth and Cache(pronounced like Cash) is laying right behind Lena. So, the airplane keeps hitting him. Whenever it hits him, she yells out with concern, “OH CATS! OH CATS!” Of course, I’m not even sure “Cats” has noticed that the airplane is hitting him. Now, it just hit our TV console, and she yelled “OH, MOVIE!”
She calls our dogs Cats (Cache), Nini(Nina), An-joe-de ( and Josie). Or sometimes Josie sounds like “Juicy”. She is getting evaluated for her speech this Thursday. While her speech can be funny (and yes, she can have a sense of humor about it too), it can also be VERY frustrating for all of us.
We did have another funny moment this week, when after did, she announced she wanted “straw-ies”.
Me: “Straw-ies?”
L: “No! Straw-IES!”
Me: “Straw-ies?”
L: “PAPA! Mama dun’t it-ten.”
Me: “What?”
R: “She SAID, ‘Mama doesn’t listen!”
And then sometimes her speech is dead-on and just as funny…
A couple weeks, we were out to eat. Both kids wanted chicken fingers and fries– can you tell they are Americanized? I always try to get them to eat their chicken before the fries. I told Lena to take a bite and held it up to her mouth.
L: (with a smile and said clearly) “I don’t need to take a bite.”
Aaron and I were talking about how she had gotten bigger.
A: “Do you want to be this tall? Like me? (motioning up to his height)
L: “No.”
A: “As tall as Mama?”
L: “Little bit taller. (Pinching her fingers to about an inch apart)
Me: “Hey, Lena. You need to be as tall as me or short.”
L ignores me.
Me: “You don’t get any bigger than me.”
L ignores me.
Me: “Don’t grow taller than me, you got it?”
L: “I can’t [not grow bigger than you].”
And here is a funny video of Reed…
a moose in moscow 
Your kids are just so cute, I can't get over it 🙂 Unsolicited advice for the speech eval: I would insist on L being scored just as any other child would be scored. Because most older SLPs aren't familiar with the different between ESL and IA children, some want to "wait and see" even though there is a clear delay. It doesn't hurt to print out a few studies on language development in IA children to have with you, just in case. On the flip side, don't worry too much if she doesn't qualify right now–preschool with typical kids seems to be the best speech tx I've found!
Our daughter's pronunciation is all over the place, too. We're still using some Russian words (and I can guarantee that our pronunciation is just as bad as hers) but the word "please" in English sounds like "cheese" and the "please" in Russian (I say pah-jhal-stah) sounds like "da-oo-tah". Hmmm…not even close.