Deet, Date and Bear

For the past few months, we have been trying to teach Claire how to say Kate's name.

Whenever we say to Claire,
"Say Kate's name" , "What is your sister's name" or "Can you say Kate?"
Claire responds with laughter & then says,
"Mama, Dada, BoBo"
and then lets out another laugh.

It was very cute when she did that, but Kate has been pretty bummed that Claire won't/can't say her name.
We would over hear Kate saying to Claire,
"Say my name Claire, Say my name. It's Kate. K-K-K-ate"

Finally, this week the time came & Claire said Kate's name!
Well, actually....she doesn't say Kate, she says "Deet" (rhymes with beat) or sometimes "Date"
But, that is good enough for us! It's better than nothing, right?
Claire will run up to Kate now & say "Deet, Deet, Deet" or "Date, Date, Date"
It makes Kate so happy that her sister can FINALLY say her name.
Because up until this week, Claire didn't call her anything or even attempt to say her name.

It was a big week for Claire, she not only started saying her sister's name, but she started saying her own name.
But, she doesn't call herself Claire, she calls her self Bear.
You can hear her in her room saying,
"Bear, Bear, Bear, Bear, Bear" over and over and over again.

It doesn't surprise me that Claire says "Deet" for Kate and "Bear" for Claire.
It took Kate a long time to say the names Kate and Claire.
She couldn't say their names correctly when she was Claire's age either.
Like Claire, Kate couldn't say the K or C sound, so she would say "Hate" and "Hair".
I wrote about it HERE.
Our girls take their time with their language development. Kate was a slow talker & Claire is following in her footsteps. Kate eventually caught up, so I'm not too worried about Claire.
And, if her language doesn't pick up, we will sign Claire up for speech. After all, my mom, sister & Kevin all went to speech in elementary school, so there is a good chance that our girls will end up going also. But for now, I will just enjoy the cute little words that my Claire Bear says!

Does anyone else's kids have funny names for their siblings? When my younger sister Rebecca was younger, she called herself "BaBoo", she called Elyse "EC" and she called me "Oofy" (rhymes with Goofy).
How she got "Oofy" from Melissa/Mel, I have no idea, but she called us those names for years!