Big Words, Little People

Recently I’ve felt a sense of impending doom. This is based entirely on the fact that my four-year-old daughter learned the word, “ominous” from an educational children’s program, and she’s not afraid to use it. Karly now uses the word ominous as a descriptive word. A lot. Sometimes she uses the word in its proper context and other times she does not. Our conversations, therefore, are sometimes confusing yet also entertaining.

Meanwhile, my two-year-old picked up another vocabulary word of her own over the Halloween season. “Spooky!” I’m not entirely sure that Kenzie knows what this word means, but she likes how it sounds coming out of her mouth. Therefore, she uses it to describe many things, including the people who were standing right behind me in line while I was waiting to vote. Let me use another word to describe that situation: awkward.

And while my preschool daughters seem to be using large and impressive words in their speech, I am starting to lose my ability to remember such words while mid-sentence. Case in point, while recently describing a tree’s beautiful fall foliage to another adult I used the phrase, “They just keep getting orange-er and orange-er.” I know, brilliant.

Perhaps I should be watching more educational children’s programs or my slide into dumb talk may be ominous.

I better start practicing saying stuff good.