Fun with words

One thing I love about Mark is that he's always improving his vocabulary. It's a pain to watch T.V. shows or read with him, because every two seconds he asks, "What's 'melancholy' mean? What does 'damp' mean?" But it's a small price to pay for a smart, well-versed child.

Once he learns a word, he's not shy about incorporating it into his speech. Sometimes this works, and sometimes...well, not so much. (A recent example was when he described a camp counselor with a gash in his leg, which opened up and spurted out piss. "Pus! It spurted PUS!" I corrected quickly, as he turned bright red.)

Last night, we went bike riding, and because it was a little chilly, I put on a fleece shirt. Mark complimented me on it later, asking, "When did you put that on? I didn't even see you do it."

"I put it on when we went bike riding," I said.

"Huh," he answered. "I didn't even nudist that you did that."

That stopped me in my tracks. I turned and asked, "You what?"

"Nudist," he repeated. "I didn't nudist." He saw me fighting a smile and asked, "What's 'nudist'?"

"Someone who likes to walk around with no clothes on," I explained. "Which clearly I am not, since I actually added a layer of clothing, instead of removing one!"

He turned bright red again, and clapped his hand to his mouth. "NOTICED!" he shouted at me. "I meant NOTICED!"

We were still laughing about it an hour later.