A Vocabulary Lesson

Bookworm is one smart cookie. Always has been.....

Two weeks ago, Studmuffin had a friend come to help rebuild the dog house. The dog house we bought builds up condensation with their body heat, thus they get wet. The doghouse that was existing under the deck when we moved in leaks. We tried putting tar paper on it, but the Oklahoma wind blew it right back off. The existing doghouse was built very strangely and very shabbily. I fear that numerous words not fit for small ears (or big ears) may have leaked out as they were removing it.

Bookworm and Popcorn were big help. They helped hammer off old, rotted plywood, they yanked nails out. They carted off old wood and put it in the back of the pickup. They were industrious little gals, I'm telling ya...

"Well, this doghouse is so much better than the Abominable," Bookworm told us.

"Abominable? What's abominable?"

"The old doghouse! That old doghouse was so stupid it was an abominable!"

"Honey, I think the word you're looking for is abomination. If you are saying something as a noun, it's an abomination. If you are describing something it is abominable. Like the Abominable Snowman..." Okay, yes, I corrected her, but call me impressed that my 4th grader was using the word abominable in context!

Fast forward to tonight....

"Hey, Dad? Do you remember when we had to bring something living, once living, and non-living to school in first grade? Remember, I brought a bunch of rattle snake rattles and a jar of grubs?"

"Yes," her daddy replied. He should remember, he was determined to think of something to bring that nobody else would match. Oh, by the way, the jar was the non living object...

"Well, when I went to the bathroom, I came back, and my whole class was totally like, 'Guess what? Your grubs laid eggs!' I just rolled my eyes and said, 'whatever' because it wasn't eggs. It was excretory...."

We both stopped eating, chili cheese hot dogs (homemade thankyouverymuch) poised in the air and looked at each other...

Studmuffin did a long, slow blink and then said, "Do you mean excrement?"

So. Here is my question for you...How many of you could use the word abomination and excretory at 9 years old?

You know you're a bookworm when you use words in every day conversation that basically only exist in books...I can remember making a total doof of myself when I would inadvertently use words in front of my friends growing up that I thought everyone knew. All conversation would stop, then I'd feel dumb and blush and start sweating, and get giant armpit rings, and...

Well. Suffice to say it wasn't pretty.