I love words.
Paxton's favorite word at the moment is touché. He loves that word, and works it into the conversation as much as possible (which is surprisingly often)
The words most likely to tickle Spencer are either medical terms or cooking techniques. It's not unusual for him to spout out a fact about a myocardial infarction, or instruct whoever's cooking dinner to carmelize the onions.
Everett is at the beautiful age where he of course talks with more commandment of the English language than Tegan, but still occasionally, and adorably, mispronounces something. And for her part, though she has a GIANT vocabulary for a two year old, Tegan is mostly enthralled with potty words right now.
I love big words that roll on my tongue, words like mellifluous and superfluous and cacophony. I love small words too, small words with big meanings: joy, peace, grace, love.
Yes, I love words.
I'm also highly irritated by words. Good or bad, I can't turn down my sensitivity to words. Things like Twitter and Facebook are at times akin to torture (and in fact the inspiration for this blog) to someone like me.
Though I seldom do it myself, swearing does not bother me. I'm far more likely to be offended by words like "hate" or "stupid" or racial or homophobic slurs than I am by a curse word. I find it offensive when people use the word "retarded", or any of its derivatives, for something other than its correct usage. Crude slang terms for any female - or male for that matter - body parts tend to make my skin crawl.
But the words that make me the MOST crazy, for whatever reason, are the popular internet abbreviated words. I. cannot. stand. the word "hubby." Or "peeps." Or "bestie." I don't like the word "kiddo." I hate it when people leave the g off the end of 'ing' words. (I mean really, is it too much work to say you are hanging instead of hangin???) An email address is an ADDRESS, not an "addy", and details are DETAILS, not "deets" AAAAAAAAA!!! I never in my life called the New England Patriots the Pats, or the Boston Red Sox the BoSox.
Abbreviations and altered words bring almost near the amount of irritation I feel when someone uses the word "your" when he means "you're", or when they use an apostrophe when they pluralize something.
Why does something so admittedly ridiculous bother me? I have no idea. Sometimes it's rather exhausting being me. And sadly, I seem to be passing this on to my children. None of the boys use any sort of abbreviations when they chat online (with the exception of the requisite LOL), and Spencer just told me that one of his Facebook friends frequently uses the word "kewl" instead of "cool" when he chats with her, and it drives him so crazy he almost can't be friends with her. Ha.
I understand, Spencer. I understand.
