The things we say

There are a lot of things we say that are due to the influences of other people.  I’m not talking about “peer pressure” or anything like that.  I’m talking about the interactions between parents and their children!  It turns out that there are many things that we say that we’ve learned from the children of our friends and family.

This is certainly not a complete list.  But some examples are – we still call a hot dog “hot goo”.  And every time we get on an escalator, we say “nana go up down”.  Or every time someone sneezes, we say “hess you”.  We are likely to call our dogs “goggies – BIG goggies”!  And when the mosquitoes swarm around us in the backyard, we’ll say “these bugs are getting me”.  We still call turkey’s “big chickens” at Thanksgiving.  Most recently, when we eat something hot (like the jalapeno Doritos that I just tried) we will say “my Doritos – they are stinging me”.   

There are many more, but one of our favorites is “Go Vols”!

Of course, the phrase itself is simply a way to cheer on your team and is yelled out my adults and children alike.  But in our case, we’ve begun to use it as other forms of speech.  For example, a common exchange between us in the evenings is “Is Mike asleep?  Yep – he’s sleeping in the ‘go Vols’ position”, which is laying on his back with his hands over his head in the “touchdown” pose.

And where in the heck did we get that from?

A couple of years ago, the “quad squad” parents taught all of the kiddos to raise their hands over their heads in the “touchdown” position and say “GO VOLS”!  It was the most adorable thing! 

They say that you should be careful what your say because your children will repeat it.  But we are living proof that the adults are just as likely to repeat what the children say!