Mitch and My Bitch

Marin is talking up a storm these days. Every day she says something new. She loves to sit at the foot of our Christmas tree in the living room and point out the objects she sees. "Oooohh, mommy! Pritty!!" I love the way she pronounces words with her limited audibility of all sounds and letters, but in her punctuated diction. "Sahnta" is santa, "stah" is star and of course, "lini" for illini, her beloved team. We have three "lini" ornaments, and she has found them all. "Oooh, mommy, lini! Oooh! 'nother lini!" She also points out house, shoes, boat and cah, for car.

But my favorite words that Marin has recently said are not found on the tree. One night last week, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas was on tv, so I tivo'd it and showed it to Marin a few days later. At first she wasn't sure about the Grinch, but she grew to love it. Problem is, she can't say the "Gr" sound, so she calls him Mitch. She loves Mitch and Mitch's dog, whom she calls Mitch Dog.

I had a craving for potato chips a weeks ago. Just plain old regular Lays potato chips. Of course I had to get a bag. We never have chips in our house, so it was a total treat for Marin. Problem is, she can't say the "ch" sound either, so she calls those bitch. And when she asks for them and I say no, she cries, "Mommy! My bitch!" A few days ago we were at the grocery and Marin pointed to this little old lady's shopping cart and shouted, "Bitch! Bitch!"

And thus a new kind of Christmas story was born... the story of Mitch and My Bitch.