Tuesday, April 8, 2008

navigating the language

One of the hilarious things about having children is how they perceive language. I've been getting a kick out of either the mis-pronunciation or alternate understanding of words floating around our house. Here are a few that make me chuckle:

waterpoof: waterproof (Mom, is this toy waterpoof? Can't you just see it. You put a toy in the water and poof! it does something. I'm envisioning feathers.)

bald: naked (The baby is bald, hee, hee!)

glow-up: glow-in-the-dark (but there may be explosions involved? Where is my glow-up cabbage patch doll? or can I get some glow-up shoes this time?)

What are some funny phrases your kids use?

Oh yes, I just remembered. Toad truck: you know, the kind of truck that toads cars.

6 comments:

  1. Usually I'm a lurker, but I just had to add my 2 cents. :)

    My daughter (6) will properly use a big word in a sentence and then immediately ask what it means.

    My son (10) has always used the word: Benext. We love it!
    "Here! Come sit Benext to me!"

    He just barely got old enough to stop saying in his prayers, "Thankyou and thanks about eating."
    a sad thing indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Benext! I love it! My daughter says "and thank you for making me great" in her prayers.

    And thanks for delurking!

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh dear, my daughter came home from the library, innocent title, illustrated cover, and inside 2 words which she had never seen...I have always told her a good reader stops at a word she does not know or has never met. These were the 2 words.
    AIDS and the other was condom.
    she's only 8.
    whoever said parenting was easy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Connor says "waterprooth" for waterproof. And he's pretty obsessed with things that are waterprooth.

    Abby says Uh-fenant for elephant and it is just too cute!

    Connor used to say haw-ka-ditter for helicopter and law-bree for library. I loved those two.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This week, my new 2 year old has been singing, "Happy yoyo" for "Happy Birthday" and her pillow case that has long since replaced her security blanket has been called, "Poe", "Nappy" and more recently "My menkan."
    When we go somewhere in the car she likes to tell me to turn on her "Me'e." (Movie)
    She likes to add an "n" to the end of "ie" sounds - so Daddy is "Daddyn".
    My 5 year old affectionately referred to President Hinkley as, "Heavenly Hinkley." She also went through a stage in her prayers where she confused "Thank thee" and "Bless" so everything was, "Thank thee" as in "Thank thee that I can have a good day tomorrow" and "Thank thee for I can have good dreams."
    We had a discussion about what to say in a prayer. I explained that she could think about what happened during her day and thank Heavenly Father for the things that happened that she was grateful for. So then she started saying, "Bless all that I did today." We're still working on the symantics.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I just thought of another one. I was talking to a friend and our kids were in earshot. I used the phrase "blah, blah, blah" at some point in our conversation. My friend's son started saying, "blah, blah, blah" to which she quickly chastized, "Only adults can use that phrase - stop saying that." I didn't really understand her antagonism against the phrase, but not my kid, right? Later when I got home with my kids, they started saying it too. Whenever my 5 year old got angry with me usually over losing a privilege she would retort in a rebellious sarcastic tone, "Blah, blah, blah!" I asked her if she knew what it meant and she said, "no."
    Now my two year old likes to say it to me as well. I don't think they ever would have paid attention to it had my friend not pointed out that it was a phrase to be used exclusively by "adults."

    ReplyDelete