What the...?!

It seems that little Benjamin has picked himself up some new vocabulary in the past few weeks. I post this not in the spirit of pride or boasting, we know it is bad. We instead post in the spirit of wondering where in the world this came from and what do we do now.

Now I must preface this by assuring all of you that the language used in our house is strictly a G-rated and that anything Benjamin may have picked up was probably in the playland of McDonalds or whatever other ghettos there might be where a two year old could spend time. That is unless, kids learn language from TV which is as we know is surely impossible.

As our family has grown, our house has shrunk and the kids and us live in pretty close quarters. Disagreements are bound to arise and the kids have been known from time to time to argue. Even toddlers who have a tendency to get into places and things where they are unwelcome can get in on the act. About a month ago, Benjamin upped the stakes in his arguing skills by adding a “Me hates you!” to his debate repetoir. We of course immediately let him know that this wasn’t appropriate language and that we all love eachother in our family.

Still though, ever since, he hs had a tendency to use this phrase to get his point across in the most simple of circumstances of his disagreement. “Benjamin, we need to put your coat and hat on before we go outside”. “Me hates you dad!”. Aww, precious little angel. He is reprimanded universally each and every time and he is reminded that the correct grammar is “I hate you dad!” No pirate talk will be tolerated in our home, thank you very much.

Despite our best efforts though, ever since, his vocabulary has only grown.

Recent additions to the list include. “You is stupid!”, “You is a butthead!” a mean-spirited “Nobody likes you!” and newly unveiled this weekend and my personal favorite, “Joshua ruined our best Christmas!”. There are some great words in there and he says it very well but all in all, Christmas was just lovely, even with Joshua and I’m wondering how many Christmases Benjamin really has for comparisson to determine this could have been our best. That one comes completely out of left field.

Just this morning he added "What the...?" I don’t remember this with either of the older two kids were little. It seems we have a prodigy on our hands. Anyone else out there ever face similar? Aside from placing one of those tiny little hotel soaps in his mouth, are there any other ideas out there to keep him from finishing that sentence?