Daily Sketch
A little inspiration from my 6 year old
A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE ELF ON THE SHELF
Today’s sketch was taken directly from my 6 year old son at the breakfast table this morning. He pointed out all the places the Elf could watch him from where they were today and ended with “He’s basically a PERBERT.” He then walked off to brush his teeth and put his shoes on for school. When he was out of sight, Casey and I let the laughter we were holding back loose.
There’s nothing more special and fleeting than the way kids fuck up words and phrases. It’s one of the most pure things about them as children. My oldest son used to call a tank top a TUSK. We had no idea why he did, but we rolled with it! It’s my favorite part of watching them grow up. But also the hardest because one day they say “Dad, remember when we did that LASTERDAY?” and one day they figure out it’s actually YESTERDAY and you’ll never remember the last time you heard the cute, wrong version. I mean, I’ll probably never use the word PERVERT again. It is now and will forever be PERBERT thanks to the mind of Milo! And I will also call tank tops TUSKS because of my amazing son Baxter!
To all you new parents…don’t correct them. Let them mess it up for as long as they can. They’ll figure it out and you’ll be sad when they do. Lean into the odd ways their brains work and translate the big world around them. They have plenty more years to get it right and become one of us normal OLDS.
Also, write it all down. I keep a note on my phone and anytime I catch those things, I add them to the note.
Jump in the comments and share your stories of kids mixing things up! hahaha.
Hope you all had a great week and go on to have an equally awesome weekend.
Charlotte basically spoke pig latin when she was a toddler- especially words with that ended in -s. "Mommy can I have a nacks? and Oliver spoke as if everything was a question, even when it was a statement, with that lilting question cadence at the end of every sentence. "Mommy I don't want to go to bed right NO-W??" Ah, good times
My now 6 year old daughter would say "last time ago" for yesterday and "some time ago" for anything past that. Recently she started saying it correctly and I would correct her, saying don't you mean last time ago, trying to make the magic last for me.
Her older sister at age 3 asked once, "what do penguins taste like?" I love all of these crazy things they say and the fact they are very serious about it makes me want more.