Tricky Letters

'E' is missing.

I just realized this. I was just going to post some pictures of vowels, because Kiernan is still into them. Not exclusively anymore. Of late he's taken to carrying around L, M, N, O, and P instead, which is a big shift, because for awhile the vowels were the favored letters to carry around and jump on the bed with and use as sleeping companions alongside Meow Meow Kitty Cat, Pooh Bear, and Guinea Pig.

I have to say this is entirely understandable. The "L, M, N, O, P" portion of the "ABC" song was always my favorite part, even if I did spend a ridiculous amount of my childhood thinking that "LMNOP" was a single letter.

After 'E' went missing the vowels gradually fell out of favor. Not that he is actively against them, they are just no longer as important. I have no idea where the letter 'E' has gone to. We've looked in the mesh bag that holds Kiernan's bath toys and letters over and over again, to no avail. We've looked under and behind furniture. We've looked behind his bed, the most popular place letters go to hide. We've looked in the toy box, in the cupboards, in the cushions, in both cars. 'E' is nowhere to be found. But now that I see this picture again I realize I have a clue, at least. 'E' was still around the day this picture was taken. So there's that. Now all I have to do is call "CSI: Bathtub" and I'm sure we'll crack this case.

Oh, and we have a "Vowel Update": it is understood now by everyone in our household--yes, this includes our cat Cali--that 'Y' is what is termed 'A Tricky Letter'. I wrote previously that while Kiernan knew his vowels, we were avoiding The 'Y' Conundrum ( a new thriller by Robert Ludlum) because we thought it would be too confusing and anyway, Y's refusal to pick a team annoyed me. But then I went and bought a "Sometimes Y" t-shirt to commemorate Kiernan's learning his vowels. He noticed 'Y' in the middle of the Ven Diagram all alone, and so his mom taught him about 'Y'. We needn't have worried about the confusion. In no time at all, he was on it.

"Y is tricky!"

"Why is that, Kiernan?"

"Because it's sometimes a vowel and sometimes a consonant!"

When my dad heard Kiernan say this over the phone he said to me, "You know his Kindergarten teachers are going to hate you."

Dad didn't really say this. Nobody really says this. It's just a joke I throw out there because it's a creeping fear I have. I'll get over it.

You should also know that 'G' and 'J' are tricky letters. This is because 'G' sometimes sounds like "guh" and sometimes sounds like 'J'. This makes them tricky. In case you were wondering.