Careful!

I think there are seasons of a mom's life during which certain words and topics are more prominent in her vocabulary than others.  

First and foremost is almost always potty-talk.  As soon as you have a baby it begins, and in those first few weeks of the child's life you celebrate every tinkle and movement of the bowels.  In the months that follow you're keenly aware of the regularity or irregularity of all such activities, and it often is discussed at times that you normally would never speak of such things--like over dinner with your hubby.  For example, "I don't think he's had a stinky diaper today.  Did you change one?  Yesterday? What did it look like?  Do you think I should be concerned?  What did he eat yesterday?"  All this while you attempt to enjoy your evening meal!  And it just continues and reaches a fevered pitch during potty training days.  Ladies, you know what I'm talking about.  You talk potty all day long and sometimes into the night. I can remember settling into bed with Stan, and talking for a good half hour about the potty trials of the day, "You would not believe how many times we tried to go tee-tee today..."  This past summer when my family was all together, my sister Carrie Beth and I hadn't realized how much we had been including this sort of talk in our conversations, but my brother Will, who's in college, said something like  this at some point, "It sure seems like there's a lot of talk about folks' poo around here!"  It just happens to us moms; we find ourselves in enthralling conversation about poo (or as we call it B.M.s--this is our attempt at being civilized when discussing rather uncivilized matters).  

Another word that is definitely a seasonal visitor to moms' vocabulary is the word "No".  I am just beginning to reenter this phase with our second child.  It was nice to be free from the compulsive "No!" for a while, but I'm afraid it's back to stay for a while.  Y'all know what I'm talking about, right? I can remember when my little brother was at this age and he had not only his mom telling him no all the time, but he also had three big sisters hammering that one home for him too.  Sometimes Mom would have to sit us three down and say, "Now remember, I am the Mommy, and I'll handle Will.  He doesn't need to hear "No" from us ten thousand times a day, so try to say something other than "No" all the time".  It was good advice, but it is hard as a mom to keep myself from blurting that word out.  Benjamin is 9 months old, and into absolutely everything.  These are the main reasons I have to work at limiting my no's: the fireplace, the fireplace screen, the armoir doors, the piano bench, every cord in the house, any loose tiny choky-like item on the floor, the toilet, the toilet, the toilet, the toilet (did I mention the toilet?  He dove in last week after throwing in his shampoo bottle--hey he had to go in after it, right?)  As you can see, I have to work at saying things like, "OK buddy, let's don't try to climb up on the piano bench and do free-base jumping,"  and "Let's go play over here instead of trying to eat the computer cords," instead of the gut-response of "NO!"

And the third word that comes to mind that seems to frequent our vocabulary from time to time is "Careful!"  I think the period of time when you find yourself screaming "No!" is usually closely tied to the stretch of time when you're also shouting, "Careful!"  I find myself saying it now to my 3 1/2 year old quite often, too: "Careful, don't choke him, don't give him another veggie puff!" "Careful, don't kick him!" "Careful, don't tickle him so hard!" and many times I say it to Benjamin now, too: "Careful, the fire is hot!" "Careful, don't pull the tablecloth off the table!" "Careful, sit down in the tub!"  I've been saying this one so often that I've found myself thinking I needed to say it to Stan, too!  Today he said to me, "Do you know where I put my hatchet?  I need to chop up some of these large pieces of firewood."  I felt compelled to yell, "Careful, don't chop off anything!" as he headed out to the storage shed.  

Of course there are many other words that are part of my vocabulary too--lots of "I love you" right now, lots of "Schmoogedy, boogedy, schmoogedy!" (That is our tickle talk around the Rogowski house). 

Maybe I'll think of more later.  I'd love to hear what words are central in your vocabulary right now and how they hold significance in your household!