New Word

I was working with Zane on a puzzle, which he seems to love these days. He was trying to put a piece of the puzzle in upside down, and was using kid logic--if it doesn't "fit", whack it a few times until it does. (which pretty much describes my dating life in college, actually. *badoom-kish!*)

"Zane, if you turn that piece the other way..." I reached for the piece. Zane snatched it away from me.

"No, Foo! I do it!" He said.

"What the heck is he saying?" I looked at my husband, who was sitting on the couch playing on his laptop. In his usual helpful manner, Larry shrugged.

Twice more, for various reasons, we heard Zane say "Foo!" After the third time, that little refrigerator light in my head clicked on.

Not "Foo!"

"Fool!" My son was calling me a fool. Using it appropriately in a sentence and everything, which would normally be celebrated a lot. We don't know where he picked this word up, but daycare seems the likely culprit.

We've tried explaining to Zane that calling someone a fool, however true it might be, is "not nice", but so far he isn't buying it. I actually kind of prefer "Foo!" to "Stoo-pid", which is what he was calling me last week. (If we're lucky, next week he'll be calling me a "cretin". I'll be happy about that one, should it occur. THAT word is on the SAT.)