Words...

Ya know... I never was one for possessing great words. No real words of wisdom. No funny sayings. No clever comebacks. Nope, not me. I could spell those words, and I could place them in a grammatically correct sentence. But I wasn't ever one for being able to arrange those words in a funny sentence, or one that could spew out some cool saying.

I always admired those people who said "cool" words. Ya know... like "flip." Or "rad." Or "totally sweet." In Jr. High, I was the queen of copying people with cool words. Even now I like to pick up on rad sayings.

So how do some of you bloggers come up with such clever stuff? There are those of you who I read regularly. And then there are those I happen upon, like this or that, that I can't stop reading - even though I don't know you from my mother's uncle's neighbor's friend... well, you get the picture. (My husband razzes me about this daily.)

And then there are the people who can recite every word, word-for-word, from movies and songs. How do they do that? Seriously? All I have to say is "Monty Python," "Nacho Libre," or "Napoleon Dynamite" in certain crowds, and we have entertainment for the evening. (And to drive home my point, I just spent two whole minutes on Google, trying to remember the name of the movie "Napoleon Dynamite." See what I mean, people? sheesh.)

What about those people with a perfect comeback? Really. I mean, after you've just been verbally attacked or ridiculed, you don't all just say, "Well... uh... hmmm." And walk off? Wouldn't I love to be able to say the 100's of things I think of, after the fact, while I'm fuming in the privacy of my own home? Oh to be so talented with an immediate reply...

Oh, and names? Forget it. You'll always be Jane Doe to me, until you've either been married into the family for a few years (and even then there's no guarantee), you've grown up with me since kindergarten, or you're my own child. (And then, once again, no guarantee.)

See my point now?

This is why I'm SO GRATEFUL that this flaw of mine does not seem to be passed on genetically to my child. Or perhaps it's the good genes from his father. But Alex seems to come up with some doozies. In fact, I keep a Word file called "Alex-isms" just to keep track of it all. Now, I know a lot of his sayings aren't "originals," but he's only three. THREE, and he's saying things like,

"WORD UP, Mom."

or, after dropping his toy, "Oh RUBBISH. What a mess."

or, "Mom, that's totally SNAP."

And names? He can tell you every Tom, Dick and Harry that he's ever met. Every character in every story and movie. Every store that we've ever been to ("There's 'Burt Brother's', Mom!"). Every proper name of every animal at the zoo. (Me: "Look at that cool monkey, Alex." Alex: "Mom! [with a slight air of disgust] That's a Mandrill. Or are you looking at the Lemur?") Even if it's been months, and he only met the person, went to the store, or saw the animal once - he remembers.

And so it is. Words - totally not my thing. But luckily for my kid, it's totally snap.