Vocabularious

One of my favorite things about watching my kids grow has been observing how their speech develops. Pronouns, syntax, verb tenses...it's all too precious to a word lover like me. It's a good reminder, too, of how non-intuitive the English language is when you hear your children use words like "goed" or "throwed." No wonder we need a Spanish version of the national anthem. There are probably no easy translations for words like "o'er" and "ramparts."

Anyway, I introduce this topic because, as I was doing my semi-annual ironing the other day, my two-year-old, whom I had admonished to stay far, far from the ironing board as she watched me, looked up at me and said, "Mama, can you give me a flavor?"

My mind went immediately to the local ice cream parlor, where we had stopped as a reward for good behavior after a recent Mother's Day shopping trip to a trinkets-and-delicates gift shop. (There's nothing quite so nerve-wracking as taking two preschoolers into a tiny store with more glass in it than you'd find in the entire Marshall Field's housewares department.)

"What did you say, honey?" I asked her, stalling as I tried to figure out why she'd be asking for ice cream at 9 AM.

She pointed at the floor beneath the ironing board. "I dropped my blankie," she said. "Can you give me a flavor and pick it up?"