Children say things differently

Children don't always hear things the way we do as adults. This, of course, means they don't say it the way we expect.

Some of our favorites over the past few years have included good night prayers in which "May angels watch me through the night" became "My angels." And we no longer have tartar sauce with fish, instead we have turtle sauce.

Some more recent examples involve my five year old. Olivia has been thrilled to have handwriting homework. She has two sheets: one has her name while the other has the alphabet. She also has a magic marker to write on them. Of course this means the paper needs to be able to be wiped off. According to Olivia, they can be wiped off because they have been lemon-aded.

Olivia has also been singing to me lately. "Oh, my darling, oh, my darling, oh, my darling, Clarinet." One day she will realize the difference between clarinet and Clementine and will correct herself.

Having been through this with Allan and Marie, it seems like the beginning of the end of childhood when these mondegreens disappear.