I didn't know it was contagious....

Small ears hear well and they repeat things you don't want them to say.  

Recent words we're guilty of at home:  stupid, whatever, shut up.  Please note these are most often spouted from angsty teenagers but I admit I'm guilty of WHATEVER!! a lot of the time.

Junior gets tickled when we say one of these words now.  He'll climb atop his little soapbox and say, "Don't say that word, Mom.  I don't like that word.  It hurts my ears when you say it."

Inside my head, I am screaming back to him, "THEN DON'T MAKE ME SO CRAZY!!"

But usually I just say sorry and that I'll try to do better.  Hrumph!!  Dang his almost 4 year old selective memory!!

Yesterday when we picked up Junior from Nana's he was saying DUH! a lot.  He said it about 4 times before we left, then once more in the car.  I told him that was not a word he needed to be using.  While I was strapping him into the car seat he said it again and while I raised my hand to pop his lips, he covered them up and said, "Sorry!"

And I'm mumble to myself, "I know where you got that word.  Nana says it all the time."

Of course little ears heard me and said:

Yeah, Nana gave me the Duhs!

Well boy, that's OK, just as long as she doesn't give you a case of the Duh-huhs.   (Yeah, I looked for John Boy & Billy's Hoyt and Delbert to insert here but they're stingy and I'm not paying for that!  Just tell Goober I said Hello.  Hellos are still free, right?)