Little kid language can be hilarious. Anyone with young children has undoubtedly had many a chuckle over something their kids have said in that little, earnest voice.
Among some of the funny words and pronunciations my kids have come up with are:
“Hop dog” for hot dog (Logan)
“Cromfy” for comfy (Cody)
“I no no” for I don’t know (Logan)
“Gre-fest” for breakfast (Logan)
“Tie-red” for tired (Logan)
And the mother of all improper articulations, the mispronunciation that causes afflicted parents moments of utter embarrassment:
Replacing the “tr” in truck with an “f.” (Logan)
While shopping one day, Logan, then around 2, saw an aisle full of trucks and started yelling, “Trucks! Trucks! Trucks!” at the top of his lungs, only it didn’t come out as “trucks.” That was one humiliating parenting moment.
Then there’s the off-the-wall stuff they say, the language that is so surprising, you find yourself looking at them in awe, wondering where they learned it and how they know how to use it.
My melodramatic one, Cody, has these moments almost daily, but some are more memorable than others.
Last month, we went outside to get in the van and I commented on what a nice day it was. “Yes, it is a nice day,” said Cody moodily, “but I don’t really like the outside world.”
When we moved him to a twin bed at 4, one of his first nights in it, he snuggled under the covers and said, “Oh, Mom, this is so crumfy and lovely!”
How do I remember all these things? Yeah, right. I can barely remember to return a phone call, let alone remember what my kids said three years ago. I write it down. Immediately. I grab whatever I can find and get it on paper, then transfer it on to a running document on my computer.
If you don’t already do this, you really should. Because even though you think you’ll remember all these cute comments and expressions that inevitably bring a smile to your face, you won’t. Trust me. Even worse, as I said in a previous post, you forget who said or did what.
Having these precious moments written down where I can read them anytime I want to is priceless and completely worth any effort it takes.
Start today. You’ll be glad you did, especially when your kid is graduating from high school, getting married, or having kids of his own. It’s incredibly sweet and moving to remember who and what they used to be.
You know, it’s so funny that your son Logan calls a truck a “f***”. I once babysat a boy named Logan who did the same. (He’s now 16 and would be greatly embarrassed if I told him this.) What made it worse is one time when I was babysitting him, a delivery truck didn’t have the brake set and fell into the lake. Of course, all of the bigger boys at church had to get Logan to tell the story over and over about the “f*** that fell in the lake.” And, he said “kitty” with a “t”, so it was really funny hearing him call the cat!