On our way into the City for our annual, New Guy-coordinated Friends' Christmas dinner, we found ourselves sitting in the crazy, fully expected yet optimistically hopeful that it won't be so bad traffic on the Eisenhower. There was a Hawks game to get to, I'm sure many special dinners and shows to enjoy and, well, bad drivers just itching to get some practice in. The Eisenhower was apparently the place to be (or not to be, depending upon one's perspective).
But that's not the point of my post...
So we're in this crazy traffic with plenty of opportunities to read the billboards that line the highway, and Ella exclaims from the backseat, "The Chickmunk movie!!!"
I looked up and a bit to my right and, sure enough, an electronic billboard advertising the latest Alvin and the Chipmunks movie was in full view.
"Where, Ella?" Cal asked. The sign had already changed. Fortunately for us (or unfortunately, again, depending upon one's perspective), we were not moving; and by the time it came around again to shine bright in the sky, Cal was able to see it.
"You're reading, Ella!" I told her, excitedly.
Ella proceeded to talk more about it, calling them "chickmunks" every time. Dan decided to educate her.
"It's Chipmunk, Baby Girl," he started.
"Chickmunk," said Ella.
"ChiPmunk," said Dan.
"Chickmunk."
"ChiPmunk... with a 'P'," he tried.
"No, Daddy, I'm talking about the Chickmunk MOVIE," Ella said, frustrated.
And then the education kind of fizzled out. Could it be that she doesn't associate Alvin with being a chipmunk and really thinks that chipmunks and chickmunks are two different things? Not sure that we'll ever know, really. I'm just going to enjoy how she says it for now.
Ella's "chickmunks" pronunciation reminds of another back-in-the-day memory of you and Erin, Carla. I'm pretty sure it was you. Anyway, one day you were trying to tell us about the color yellow, but it didn't come out that way. Your pronunciation was "yelellow," as close as I can come to spelling it. Back and forth we practiced the accurate two syllable word versus your three syllable version. Like Ella, you were stubborn and stuck with your "yelellow." I'm pretty sure you can spit it out now, although when the transformation occurred was on your timetable, not anybody else's.
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