How have your kids affected your vocabulary?

Ha! Not my kids, but my niece and nephew have taught me a few new words. When my niece wanted to nurse, she said 'noon'. She said 'dukkadukkadukka' for tickletickletickle. My nephew is better at nailing words, but he had a hard time with the hard 'k' sound, so he said 'milt' for milk, 'bite' for bike, etc. And he says 'din' for again. These are the words I picked up from them....

Peace. Cool as the other side of the pillow. We're rolling like that. Keepin it real.

Years ago, when I worked at the hospital, I passed one of my co-workers in the hall on her way to lunch. I pointed and said, "nana!" She said, 'No, J, it's a ba-na-na".

M struggles with 'sn' sounds. She wanted a 'tack' in the morning, saw a 'take' in the grass, snookie and sneakie, stuffed animals, came out 'tookie' and 'teakie'. One day K decided she was going to help her sister speak. She was 4, M was 2.

K- repeat after me, 'sssssssss'
M- 'ssssssss'
K- 'nnnnnnn'
M- 'nnnnnnn'
K- 'sssssssssnnnnnnnn'
M- 'ssssssssssss....' giggles
K- 'ssssssss', 'nnnnnnn', 'sssssssssnnnnnnnn'
M- 'ssssssss', 'nnnnnnnnnn', 't', giggles

K patiently spent another 10 minutes helping her string s and n together. There were lots of giggles and eventually M was able to see a snake, ask for a snack, and play with snookie and sneakie.


These days I catch myself thinking phrases like, "My bad". I don't think I've actually said it out loud though.

household favorites were:

mokonut = yogurt
dudderdie = butterfly
gibbit = cheese (?)
bina = nickname for K
monkey = nickname for M

My bad.
Don't be hatin'.
Hit me on the cell.
That's phat.

Yes, but not much anymore. For a while we had:

ti-ti = sit
ni-ni = sleep
Can't remember the one for eat. Has it been that long?

I say "my bad", but that's not my kids' fault.

I think our only word is "pook" a generic term which Mo invented to describe an animal's home.

It really comes in handy when he comes in with a handfull of slugs and I can suggest that the slugs would be happier back in their pook instead of his pocket.

I like the idea that worms and rolly pollys and beetles and bugs have a pook, a specific place to call their own that is not my bookshelves or bed.

driving me crazy lately:

"thas KOO-EL"
"thas pimp"

oh no. what does 'thas pimp' mean? I'm scared-a that.

wonder and awe

'hood lingo has taken over the middle schools

Just wait until your cute toddlers turn into teenagers.

Being a "Pimp" is a good thing, and "Ho'" (short for whore) is a common way to refer to a female friend-- even casually in front of them. (These terms really bother me.)

Being "Ill" means "cool", and if something is "mad ill" it means that it is something you really want.

"Mad heated" means really angry (at least I understand this one.)

It doesn't seem like the slang I used as a teenager was quite as offensive-- or am I just getting old.

I don't mind it but the misogynist stuff is cause for alarm

Guys call each other dog, like "whassup dog?" or refer to a woman as a bee-otch (bitch) or hootchie. And then you wonder why they seem to have no respect for themselves, each other, or anyone else, except for the pimp and the gangster? No matter how casually uttered, those words do stick and can come to define who and what you are.

I hate to be ol' farty...but it's a real battle at home with all the cusswords and derogatory slang. It's real hard to unteach him after his two older brothers polluted his vocabulary.

When we were kids we started using the incorrect word "Hostible" instead of "Hospital" because one kid just couldn't say it correctly. I realized that at home my family adopted incorrect pronunications as a joke but I realized I had to stop it when I said "I have an appointment at the hostible" during a workplace meeting and people thought I was a nut!

I think my girl was four years old before I heard an "S". And I guess a lot of children have trouble with initial letters. For instance, one favorite doll was "Dickey Mouse"

She liked to go wimmin in the dake in the ummertime. She carried her dunch to daycare, and sometimes used a work to eat it

My favorite, tho, is that she knew that trucks "beep uip" when they are in reverse. We took that as a family thing and expanded on it, as "beep over" to get a little more room on the bench...