Sophia has always been a really smart kid. In third grade, she was reading at the 12th grade level. She rarely pronounced words wrong, memorized books, spoke in complete sentences. In many ways, the "little girl" wore off of her a long time ago.
But lately, as she gets older and stretches her wings a little, something funny has happened. Her "big vocabulary" is getting all mixed up. And it's a mother's dream. That reminder that she's still a little kid... what could be better?
At first I thought it was a fluke. We were getting dinner ready in the kitchen one night and something came up that required extreme teasing. Sometimes a girl just needs to be teased...and who are we to deny her that need?
Finally, after a few minutes of this, Sophia slams her hands on the counter and says, "Will you just GET OFF MY SHOULDERS ABOUT IT?"
The trouble was, she was being funny BUT deadly serious in her choice of words.
One time thing, right? It wouldn't happen again, so we adopted the phrase "get off my shoulders" as a household and moved on with our lives.
Then, a couple weeks ago, she came to Adam with a question about two words. "So, what would be the forfeit of that word?" she asked, straight-faced.
Adam stared at her for a minute and then finally realized she meant "What would be the replacement for that word?" Where she got forfeit, we still don't know.
Finally, last night, we were playing Scrabble in preparation for Adam's tournament today. (Yes, I am serious.) I should also add that I hate this game. I'm horrible at it and feel like my game play is an insult to writers everywhere. Anyway, we were playing and Sophia tried to play the word "HIPE." She puts it down and immediately starts celebrating...
"YEAH! I'm awesome! Take that! In YO FACE!"
Adam and I look at each other...
"Uh, that's not how you spell hype," Adam says.
She deflates. "What?"
"It's H-Y-P-E."
"It can't be spelled with an 'I'?"
Adam and I shake our heads.
Sophia takes the tiles off the board. "Oh, yeah, fine, just go ahead and blow my thunder."
Blow my thunder?
I've yet to uncover where her mad cliche skills are coming from, but in the meantime, I'm writing them down and working them into straight-faced conversation with her. I can't tell you how much joy it brings me to hear her messing these things up.
I wouldn't forfeit this little girl days for anything...so get off my shoulders about it.



