The missing Rs

Last weekend Erika lost her Rs.

She and Sasha played with their friend Maddie last Friday. On Sunday, Erika said, "I was going to do that fuust." For a minute I couldn't figure out what she said but then I realized she had just pronounced "first" like Maddie does - Maddie doesn't pronounce her Rs. I made a brief comment about how she sounded like Maddie.

Over the next few days, she lost more and more Rs. I was stuck between amazement that she could consistently apply that speak affect to any word and irritation that she kept doing it. Joe was just irritated.

A week later she is still doing it, although at this point even Sasha is telling her to stop speaking like that and to say words right. I was concerned enough to ask her teacher about it. She never heard of any kid doing that. I'm quite sure this will go away soon and it will be just a memory. But I guess in the future I'll need to not only pay attention to who her friends are but how they speak!