My daughter has never been at a loss for words – I suppose that’s one trait she inherited from me. Recently, she’s also gotten into the habit of combining words whenever it suits her, which is always a challenge to decipher but usually ends in success if I spend enough time trying to figure it out. The problem, however, as we all know, is that finding the time and energy to actually focus on the conversation unfolding in front of you is a lot more difficult than meets the eye.
To illustrate my point, my daughter came home from school yesterday and told me that her teacher had asked all students to describe how they felt the day before school started. The question seemed fairly benign, so I braced myself for the standard slew of adjectives that we all might expect from this scenario.
As my daughter continued down the list of words like “scared,” “happy,” “shy,” “frightened,” and “excited,” I must confess that my mind started to wander a bit and I began wondering what we should be eating for dinner that night. Did I have enough time to defrost that chicken in the freezer, or was it going to be pasta again for the third night in a row?
I unfortunately never had the time to figure out my answer, because I was brought back to reality with the question, “so do you like my word, Mommy?”
In an attempt to cover for the fact that I had not actually HEARD the word, I went for a glass of water and, before taking a sip, said, “tell it to me again, honey?”
“I said I felt shit-cited, Mommy.”
Water came out of my mouth, my nose, and possibly even my eyes as I attempted to stop the combination of choking/gagging that had just ensued. Once I finally regained my composure, I asked for clarification.
Apparently it was a combination of being “shy” and “excited.”
Suffice it to say that I’m really looking forward to our parent/teacher conferences next week, especially if these words are on display around the classroom.