Ok, now that the power situation is stable....

I can tell you my newest source of mommy embarrassment.

So A has this speech problem. *I* understand him. His Daddy understands him. His multitude of brothers understand him. Some people who hang out with his toddler self understand him. But strangers...well...they usually look has him with puzzled expressions and then look up to me for translation of some enlightened phrase.
More often than not it's something like "I have a red truck." or something potty related.

Of course, over the past few days people have been able to understand him quite well and I'm not getting a puzzled look. I'm getting "maybe-we-should-call-child-protection-services-on-this-lady" look.

Let me first explain A's speech idiosyncrasies. He can't say "f." Most of the time he substitutes "b" for any "f" sounds. So the phone becomes "bone." a fork becomes "bork." He can't do "sh" either. His "sh" sounds magically transform into "ch" sounds. Bush becomes "buch." Shoes are "choosch."

All this is fine in most of our conversations. We've learned to interpret and gently correct and mimic the proper pronunciation. (His ST asked us too so don't think we're pushing the kid.)

But lately...as in every day...he's wanted to talk to complete strangers about our pet fish and all things fish related. (Go ahead. Do the substitution. Yes....that is what comes out of his mouth.)

Oh goodness... he does love to talk about the fish. "I have 2 new fish and one old fish. When my old fish dies, we're going to get a new fish. I has an old big black fish. That fish sucks on everything. The new fish are small and red. The new fish eat all the time. The cats likes to drink the fish water. Do you have a fish? You should get fish. Fish are nice."

Oh yes.
The poor strangers. First they look horrified. Then they eventually figure it out and then start to giggle and blush. Then they give me that "you-poor-thing" look while I try to change the subject to something non-fish related. One guy at the zoo just threw his head back and laughed until he cried.

The boy loves his fish.