Language-Learning all Around!

These days Chase is like a sponge. He mimics things he sees and hears constantly. This is a of course a good, and a bad thing. Way before I was even expecting, Jas and I would talk about the fact that we should start practicing censoring what we said. Working with kids on a regular basis, the words "fudge" and "sugar" were regular replacements in my vocabulary. This means I'm regularly made fun of. Jas however-works with a bunch of sailors. Don't get me wrong I am by far no saint when it comes to inappropriate language. I still surprise myself when I get frustrated around my own parents, and let a few choice words fly...I still expect to be reprimanded:) Jas and I disagree on whether certain words are deemed acceptable. I was raised that "suck and ain't" fall into the category of curse words. We were told we were not from South Philly, and those words didn't belong in our repertoire. While I do agree with Jas that these two words don't warrant the same rating as others, I would still like to continue this upbringing with Chase.

Please don't think we let George Carlin's "7 words" fly on a regular basis, but while driving we are both guilty of letting a few choice words out. I think we have both improved tremendously in this area. Jas and I have grown increasingly conscious of what we say around Chase, and strive to fill his days with a rich variety of language. If you don' t have kids you might not understand this, but once you have them-you label everything-Constantly! He is still on the cusp with repeating everything he hears, so we still have a little time to change our behavior.

As a child we tormented my parents by teaching our youngest brother a word that rhymed with "brickhead". Luckily what little kids say doesn't exactly come out clearly-so when he proceeded to yell it over and over again in a restaurant, my parents were the only ones mortified. The more the three of us laughed, the more he said it. He hates this story because we still tell it. Since Chase doesn't have older siblings Jas and I are those role models.

Where am I going with this post? Well, last night I was on my way home with Chase and got stuck behind an elderly gentleman going 15 miles an hour below the speed limit. This was the second day in a row this happened and it was dark because of the time change, so I was less than pleased to have another delay in getting home. I showed restraint and didn't use any foul language, but I did pull out a word that was much more prevalent in our vocab years ago. Now that I think about it we may still say it on a pretty regular basis, and its so ingrained in what we say its just less pronounced. Sorry there isn't some big lead in here, and the word is pretty anti-climatic- I said "dude". I guess the dozens of times we've watched "Big Lebowski" and living at the beach for a few seasons subliminally caused created this monster. Chase probably here's it all the time, but I ended up saying something like "Dude step on the gas, come on dude, dude the speed limit is 45" a few times. After repeating the word across several minutes, I hear this tiny voice from behind me say it. It wasn't super clear so it sounded like "doo", just like when he says "duck" it comes out "dut", but he said it.

Add that one to the list. I guess it could have been worse:)