The plane ride from Orange County to Seattle was surprisingly smooth. Our 3-year-old was distracted by stickers, sketch pads, and the free drink service. Our 6-month-old slept for part of the trip and whimpered a bit toward the end, but she managed quite well. Nobody had a tantrum or a blow-out. We exited the plane with high hopes.
After getting our luggage (and we had A LOT of luggage…a giant suitcase, two carseats, and three carry-ons), we made our way to the car rental area.
At this point, our 3-year-old was practically bouncing off the walls from being “contained” in an airplane for almost three hours. She was running, jumping, dancing, singing, giggling – and being silly as silly can be.
Suddenly she stops mid-dance and yells (at the top of her lungs, for no apparent reason): “SHIP!”
Yes, my friends, she said: “ShiP.” Not the bad word it sounds exactly like – the floating vessel that pirates man on the high seas.
I have no idea why, but she’s gotten in the habit of randomly shouting out words that are pure nonsense. Her favorites lately are “Spanish!,” “Alphabet!,” and “Ship!.” She thinks it’s hilarious to say illogical phrases and will often start snickering to herself immediately afterward.
We are in the process of discouraging the use of the latter word, but it’s not easy. Especially because she really does mean “ship.” If you ask her what she means, she will say, “It’s a big boat.”
But the people in the airport certainly didn’t stop to ask.
I’m sure they passed right by, nodding their heads in consternation and tsskking our poor parenting skills.
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Erin S. says
October 22, 2009 at 7:20 pmchuckle chuckle – what a girl!
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erica says
October 8, 2009 at 7:20 amOur big kid has done that multiple times. In fact, she used to love (and still occasionally does) making up words. One of the gems when we moved here was one that sounded awfully like the F word. As Chris had just been hired as the worship pastor and I was dropping off our daughter in Sunday School, I definitely warned them and told them that it was not, in fact, the word it sounded like. I didn’t want them to think we were terrible parents, but I also didn’t want them to have a cow and tell her excitedly not to say it anymore; I was worried that if she got too much attention for it she would up the usage! :)
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Rhonda says
October 7, 2009 at 7:53 amThat is funny ….since it happened to you guys and not me. I know, my day is coming.
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Madeline says
October 6, 2009 at 9:25 pmHa! Yep Levi has a few words that sound like..ahem..other words. It’s always so lovely when he decides to say them very loudly. I’m just hoping other people have been there done that and just maybe understand.
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Rachel Sue says
October 6, 2009 at 7:42 pmAnd these are the defining moments of motherhood.
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Nini Lettner says
October 6, 2009 at 6:02 pmYou are hilarious! Love that she yells SPANISH! That is awesome! My 2 1/2 year old says some of the funniest things…like a few months ago when she asked me if Barack Obama would play soccer with her. Or like the other day when we were at Trader Joes and she asked me why we had to pay for the food, “just take it home Mom!”…uh…no Mr. Checker, I have not taught my daughter how to steal food! Ha ha! All of the sweet, endearing, I love yous, and ‘your the best mom ever’ statements make up for the embarrassment don’t they!?
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The Jacobsen Family says
October 6, 2009 at 4:35 pmLOL!!! That is too funny! I’d die of embarrassment too (and laugh later, of course!).
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Blessed says
October 6, 2009 at 4:26 pmI can see my 2 year old doing something like that – although she seems to randomly spout off numbers – it was “34” for a long time, now it’s “30,000” At least those words can’t be construed as something they are not.
However… when my oldest little sister “Grace” was this age she couldn’t pronounce the “tr” sound and it always came out as a simple “f” sound and one of her favorite words was “truck”… yeah, it was really bad when she learned that truck drivers were sometimes called “truckers” and she saw one get out of his truck and follow her and mom into the store so she pointed at him and said loudly “Mom, look! It’s the trucker!” Sometimes we wonder if Mom ever did recover from that one :)
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Amy M says
October 6, 2009 at 11:22 amToo funny…they grow out of those funny, embarassing, silly stages way too fast!
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zmama says
October 6, 2009 at 7:33 amThat’s really funny :) I think we’ve all had our share of moments like that!!
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Jinxy says
October 6, 2009 at 7:31 amOh how embarrassing. Sorry Steph. It’s a good thing she’s really cute to make up for it. :)
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tiffany says
October 6, 2009 at 7:17 amHow precious! I’m trying to imagine a toddler randomly saying, “Spanish!” Funny!
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workout mommy says
October 6, 2009 at 6:58 ammine does the same thing! He shouts buck and fruck and all sorts of things that turn peoples heads.
If i draw attention to it, he just does it more so I try to ignore it but it sure does get some attention!
hopefully it’s a phase they will grow out of very quickly! :)
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Cameron says
October 6, 2009 at 6:42 amvery funny… the things kids say… and what they really sound like. Our 3-year old niece likes to say the word fork… although it sounds a lot like a very bad four letter word that starts with an F… not good when out in public.
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Melinda J says
October 5, 2009 at 11:35 pmThat’s hilarious!! What a fun silly girl you have!