Aw, Shucks

Baby C amazes me on a daily basis. His vocabulary is increasing at an astronomical rate. Each day brings new words. He can speak in complete sentences. It is fascinating to experience and I feel all warm and fuzzy inside every time he says something new.

I’m not sure where he picked it up, but recently he has begun expressing his disappointment by muttering, “Aw, shucks,” whenever something doesn’t go his way. I’m sure he picked it up from one of the many kids shows he watches at my mom’s house, but I’m still not sure which one.

It’s hilarious, to me, to hear him express his disappointment this way because he does so at comically opportune times. For instance,  yesterday he wanted to play upstairs with the twins. Bubbies, as he refers to them. So he went upstairs and I could hear them all crashing around and otherwise having a great time. After a while, though, I heard Baby B howl in pain and then yell at Baby C for some misbehaviour. Seconds later all three of them descended the stairs.

Evidently, Baby C bit Baby B’s finger hard enough to draw blood. I disciplined Baby C with a spanking and a timeout. As he sat there bawling his poor little heart out he asked me if he could get down. I told him no because he was in a timeout. Then: “Awwwwwwwww, shuuuucksssssssssss.” He wailed it so pitifully that I almost lost my composure and began laughing even though I was upset with him.

His enunciation still hasn’t quite caught up to his rapidly expanding vocabulary, however. Even though he knows an insane amount of words, he still cannot say them all properly yet. That’s fine, and to be expected, but sometimes it leads to misunderstanding. “Aw, shucks,” doesn’t always come out sounding like, “Aw, shucks.”

When Baby C watches TV, he stands right in front of the TV. His nose is literally inches from the screen as he watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Cars for the umpteenth million time. When I was picking him up from my mother’s house one day last week, he was parked at his vigil in front of the TV. I asked him to back away from the TV a bit. He turned and looked at me, then muttered, “Oh, shush.”

Um, excuse me?

I put him on the couch for a timeout. It wasn’t until much later – when he had established a pattern of saying “Aw, shucks,” all the time – that I figured out what he had meant to say.

Of course, no kid-learning-new-words story is complete without the obligatory swear word uttering. My sister-in-law told me over the weekend that when she corrected Baby C one time last week he blurted out, “Aw, shit.” I duly laughed and told her about his, “Aw, shucks” routine.

It’s truly amazing to watch your children grow. To learn new things. To develop their personalities. I can’t wait for the next new thing Baby C will learn.