Miss Julie came by today

And she brought the farm! A cute little farm with lots of nifty animals, and we practiced our animal sounds. Allen is pretty much up on these. But it became clear once again that Allen only knows one vowel... Wait, that's not giving him credit. He spans the whole realm between 'uh' and 'eh.' I think they call that a diphthong...

Miss Julie had some ideas about this. She wants us to practice showing him how you move your face to make these sounds: Eeeee! Ooooo! Oh! She says we should also try giving him an array of different kinds of cups. So he'll have to work his mouth in different ways. And, music to Daddy's ears: Miss Julie recommends singing lots of "Old McDonald." Eeee-iiii-eee-iii-ohh! (For those of you who don't know, Daddy's not much for singing. He says he may instead do a dramatic reading of "Old McDonald," sort of in the style of James Earl Jones.)