Hold On a Second . . .

Have you ever wondered where your children learn their quirks from?  Look around, I bet they're learning them from you!  Sammy has a ton of Sammy-isms . . . little things he does or says . . . and most of them came directly from my mouth.

Last Sunday we headed over to Walmart after church.  When we pulled in the parking lot, he said, "Can we get that new DVD, Twilight?  We need to get Twilight."  Where did he learn that?  He's heard me asking Mike for that DVD since mid-November, and most especially he's heard me talking to my girlfriends about how much I wanted to buy it. 

Recently he's been dramatically saying (like a valley girl), "OH.  MY.  GOSH.  Look at that  . . . "  I really don't know where he picked that one up from, but I hope it wasn't me!

Tonight we were eating dinner, and he was telling me how he was going to take a really big bite of food, but then he says, "But not yet.  I'm about to pee in my pants.  Hold on a second, I'm gonna' go potty."  Who says that?  Yep, me.  Guilty as charged. 

This just further reinforces my use of euphemisms and other words for all the bad words I'd like to use.  For example, things "irritate the fire out of me."  And I say "donkey" instead of another word most of us know.  And instead of the requisite "WTF," I always whip out a handy "Are you kidding me?"  That one is actually pretty funny when Sammy uses it!  My good friend Tara that I used to teach with taught me many of her euphemisms . . . I miss getting to hear them every day!

We went to the Houston Children's Museum today with our playgroup.  We had a great time, enjoyed hanging out in the Tot Spot and Kidtropolis.  We had a quick scare when one of our moms thought she had lost her little boy.  I placed my two in another mom's care, and quickly dashed over to the info booth to alert them.  We quickly found Sammy's friend - his mom was so relieved, and I was so glad that I almost cried. 

Keep an eye on your kids - teach them to stay put if they can't find you, teach them your full name and their full name, and be sure when you go ANYWHERE to take advantage of the modern technology we have in digital cameras and cell phone cameras to snap a quick photo of them that morning so you have a visual of their clothes and face to quickly show security personnel in the horrible event that you lose track of them. 

One last tidbit is to teach your child to scream "You are not my mommy.  My mommy is [your full name]" if they are taken by someone they don't know.   Anyone who's smart would ask for ID and your child would get back to you that much quicker.  Another great tip from my girl, Tara!  Stuff happens, even to the best of moms, so make sure you equip yourself and your children.  Sammy knew my full name at age 2, so it's never too early!


Got any interesting child-isms to share?  Have any child safety tips you can offer?