Self-awareness

I've mentioned it before back in October 2012, I talked about the fact that Biscuit has a stutter.

We've never said anything to him about it, and we've asked our friends and family and Biscuit's day care teachers not to mention it, either. From what we can tell, it's a developmental thing that has already gotten better. And if he's still having problems with it when he starts school, we can consult with a speech teacher.

Jeff and I were surprised a couple of weeks ago when Biscuit acknowledged his stutter for the first time.

Biscuit was watching TV, and he said, "Mom, sometimes Piglet says, "I'm sc- sc- sc- scared. And sometimes when I can't think of what I want to say, I say, 'Um, um, um, um ...' "

I'm not often speechless, but I was at that point. I wanted to make sure I said the right thing, but I had no idea what the right thing might be. So I just smiled at him and waited to see if he wanted to say anything else about it.

"But that's okay, right, Mom?" Biscuit said.

"Of course it is," I said. "Everybody talks in a different way, and sometimes when people are talking, they get stuck on some words. But you just keep going until you say what you wanted to say."

"Okay," Biscuit said, then he ran away to play.

Somehow, I thought it would be a bigger deal. I thought it would come up when another kid made fun of him. Or maybe someone mentioned it. Or maybe when he was trying to talk about someone tried to rush him.

But just like that, a conversation I had wondered about was all done and taken care of.