** This thread discusses the Content article: Talking The Talk **




I had dinner at Steven's place the other night. For those new to this blog I'll explain that my ex and I have dinner together regularly. We agree that the reason we get along so well now is because we don't live together anymore, so we exist happily as friends and co-parents, but with our own separate lives as well.



Anyway, this blog entry isn't about our relationship as exes, it's about something funny Max said as we sat around the dinner table with our good friends Georgina and Baz. Steve had cooked a lovely roast lamb, and we were up to the stage of coffee and general chit-chat.



I was talking about a friend of mine who has just gone into hospital for an operation on her feet. "Oh yes," said Max. "The turnips, right?"



We all looked at him blankly. Had the boy gone mad? "What turnips?" said Steve. "Do you mean parsnips?" We had just eaten roast parsnips, pumpkin and potato, but definitely no turnips.



"No!" he said. "I mean, you know... what you get on your feet!"



"Oh!" I said, as it suddenly clicked. "Do you mean bunions?" Yes, that's what he meant, and we all fell about laughing over the confusion. I think that one will go down in family history as being one of those classic moments of mixed-up words. Actually, after I immortalise it on this blog it's guaranteed to go down in family history. Max is going to be so pleased... not!



It got me thinking about other funny things the kids had said when they were little, and I delved into my files and found a list I'd written years ago. Reading it was a real trip down memory lane.



"What number was the weather part today?" Lauren had asked, age four. What she really meant was, "What was the temperature?" Another one of hers was, "Can I use the eggscalator to do some plussing?" Translation: "Can I use the calculator to do some adding up?"



I like the way she invented the new verb 'to plus'. I also have a cute little note she once wrote which says, "I love you mummy, thank you for borning me". Aw!! Also on the list were Lauren's two favourite songs: 'Blah Blah Black Sheep' and 'Tinkle Tinkle Yintel Star'. I think the latter may have been a Yiddish version, I'm not sure.



I'd jotted down how Max aged 10, tried feverishly to remember the word for fly swatter during a game of Pictionary. "Fly whacker," he'd said. No, wait... fly smacker!" Then there was his invention of the word 'turtoise' which of course saves you having to figure out whether the creature has feet or flippers.



I wish I'd written down more of these bits and pieces over the years. A lot of the others I had noted were to do with mispronunciation, but the ones that really entertained me were these examples I've mentioned, where language gets mangled and confused, sometimes with a creative streak that creates an extra nuance.



Recently, I was talking to one of the kids who lives next door to Steve. Little Ethan is five and was all dressed up in his footy gear ready to go to Auskick. Max and I decided to do a bit of teasing about his choice of AFL football jumper. He was wearing Collingwood's black and white stripes, not the blue and white of Geelong that we prefer.



"You really need a different jumper," I said. "Like Geelong's jumper. The Cats win all the time, you know. Not like your Magpies."
Ethan looked at me seriously. "No, Margaret," he corrected me. "You know... not this night but the yesterday day night... the MAGGIES won," and as he said his tangled sentence he raised his fist in a victory salute, with such a look of glee on his face that my heart melted.




While I love it that my kids are older and more independent now, sometimes... just sometimes... I'd love to return to those earlier years. There's something about gorgeous five-year-old boys like Ethan that make me really clucky. Oh well. My kids are still pretty cute. They may be tall and more grown-up, but the child still lurks within.



Which reminds me, I must ring up my friend and ask how she's recovering from the turnip operation.



What funny things do your kids say?

I wish I had written down all those funny things that my boys had said when they were little and grappling with the irregularities of the English language, I still remember how little Alex would just add an "ed" to anything that occurred in the past, for example, " Wow , I runnded really fast!". For my other son Tom, anything in the past happened " beyessafore". And sometimes I still call a computer a "percuta" in loving memory of those little boys who invented the word but then left it to move on to girlfriends, heavy metal rock music and driving lessons.

"Mum, can we have spaghetti bloody-nose for dinner?"

Translation: Bolognese.

Very cute Margaret!! I also wish I had written down the tangled language my kids used to use. My mother-in-law always told me to write it down because she said I would forget it - and I mostly have. But reading your blog I was reminded of something Levi used to say when he was little. Being unable to get his head around the concept of 'tomorrow' he used to say, "But Mummy are we going to the park today-tonight-in-the-morning?" - it was very cute. Thanks for the memories (and another great blog!)

Just this morning Little Miss 3 was singing about Little Miss Muffet "eating her curls away!" And the alphabet is sung "ABCD, ABC, ABGD and Penelope." It's such a precious age. Mind you, in my teaching days (pre-mum) I once had a much older student ask if I could "explode" something on the photocopier for him for a project. He wanted it blown up to a bigger size!

I have really enjoyed reading the blog entries here, and am still chuckling over the funny kid talk. I remembered another one that Tom used to sing when he listened to the Lion King song "hakuna matada" ( or something like that). he didn't really understand some of the words, but he substituted " Its the problem tree, with lots of breeze!" I think it was supposed to be "its a problem free , philosphy".
My boys were growing up in France, so had to grapple with two languages. the language of the playground was the most important to them, with their home language, English ,second place. All attempts at English speaking were done with French format. For example; ' the keys of the car are in the bag of mummy." or " I left the toy of Thomas at the house of Kevin." , and a favorite; " At the house of Charlotte there is a pool digged-in " ( inground pool, after the French piscine creuse).

This blog has certainly brought back some very pleasant memories..thank you!