Danielisms

I love having an almost five year old in the house.  The other day, while pretending to be a robot, he was running around the house doing "robot arms" (you know what I mean), and shouting in his best monotone, "Call-a-nerd!  Call-a-nerd!  Danger!  Danger!"

It took me a while to figure out that "call a nerd" is Daniel for "red alert."

Today while playing pirates he burst out with, "Timmerme Shimmers!"  (He has also taken to plundering the living room and secreting his spoils in a blanket tent.  I reminded him that he would have to clean the whole thing up before lunch, but it has not quenched his zeal for theft.)

My impulse is to laugh and then correct these little malapropisms, but then I remind myself that he won't be doing things like that for much longer as he gets older and becomes more savvy.  I also try to resist the temptation to laugh.  I remember being laughed at as a child for silly mistakes like that, and it was always a little mortifying.  My mother laughed heartily when I applied the adjective "livid" to a pink house I particularly liked when I was about 9.  I know she didn't mean to be unkind, and it was pretty silly, but 20 years later I still feel a little writhe of embarrassment every time I hear the word.