Say what??

Artic. Exspresso. Nucular. On any given day, you might hear people mispronounce any number of words. As a parent, the probability that you will hear something verbally incorrect and hilarious on a daily basis increases exponentially...heck, Bill Cosby knew that "Kids Say the Darndest Things" was a comedic goldmine.

Ben comes up with some funny ones, I'll give him that. Stwallaberries were his favorite fruit for a long time, and we all remember laughing at the new name he gave Percy the green train...let's just say that one's x-rated, shall we? Perhaps I can chalk this up to him being a toddler...but maybe, just maybe, there is a hereditary explanation to all this.

My mom, sister and grandmother are all notorious for mispronouncing things...and even misidentifying things. (Please, Mama, Chelle and Mamaw...don't be mad at me...I'm laughing with y'all, not at y'all. And are you even reading this?!) Mamaw has placed several orders at eating establishments that made the waiter blush...from the Firecrapper Special featured on July 4th to the yummy fa-jigh-tas with salsa, we've all had a good chuckle. So it shouldn't be any surprise that her daughter and her daughter's daughter are plagued with the same language disease.


*Disclaimer--this was years ago...and we all laugh about it so I'm totally not making fun of my family.*

I don't think we'll ever forget Michelle announcing at the breakfast table, while pressing her thumb in the middle of her ribcage, that her scrotum hurt. Really? If that's the case, Chelle, then your ribcage is the least of our worries...

This all comes to mind because Mama and Daddy are visiting us, and they were reading a book review that I have in the latest issue of ISLANDS magazine. She read the first line and finished it with "...the island of O-hoo-ah..." and I stopped dead in my tracks. O-hoo-ah? Apparently, it's the lesser known Hawaiian island...right off the coast of OAHU.

She just laughed like she always does and said "Oahu? Isn't that what I said?"

No. No it wasn't. ;-)