Spelling

As a child, I was the QUEEN of spelling. My favorite time of year was when we would have the class spelling bees (which I would win), followed by school level (which I would also win), and then on to district level, county level, etc. Unfortunately, I always ended up missing a silly word. I never made it to the SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE. Mateo is already practicing for the days when he will be Spelling Bee champion. He just learned how to spell two new words. And he is super duper proud of himself.

The first word, he learned last night. We went to Wendy's before going to Skate Night and he ordered his favorite mandarin orange cup. After eating his oranges, we had this conversation:
Mateo: Mami, I know how to spell empty.
Mami: Empty, like what?
Mateo: You know, empty. My mandarin oranges is empty. It means NOT FULL mami.
Mami: How do you spell empty?
Mateo: Like this (he then proceeded to draw the letters M and T in the air) Get it mami? M-T. I spelled a word.

And then he picked up a new word this morning.
Mateo: Mami, I know how to spell Anne. She's my aunt Anne. She lives in Cali-forn-YA.
Mami: How do you spell Anne?
Mateo: Like this ("N"-"E").
Mami: Great Mateo.
He actually says Anne more like (Eh-Nee) so his phonetic spelling of her name is right on!