Out of The Mouth of Babes

The other day I had to make a trip to the book store to get myself a book. Unfortunately I had gotten myself wrapped into a series in which the final book was not in Kindle format. Seriously folks, if you are going to put a trilogy into kindle format for the love of Bob, PLEASE make sure ALL THREE books are accessible to Kindle!!!! It is completely unfair and just inhumane to make one stop at 2 am when they are ready to start the last book, only to search amazon frantically with no kindle book available!!!

So, in order to save my sanity and find out what happened to the characters and their lives, I prepped Soren and Ashe, promising that if they behave while Mommy desperately searches for the book she needs, they can play at the train table in the book store after for a long time (while Mommy checks her email in her Droid.)

As with any outing, Ashe and I went over the rules. Mommys rules when we go out to stores are:

1. Stay With Mommy and
2. Fowwow Drections (follow directions for those of you who can't speak 3 yr old)

When we go to the library or bookstore we have one extra rule:

3. Use our quiet (shhhh) voice


So as I get the kids shoes on and keep Soren away from the plant dirt I ask Ashe to go over the rules with me.

"STAY WIF MOMMY..."
"Yup!"
"FOWWOW DRICTIONS..."
"Yup! And..."
"KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT!" He grins happily
"Umm... what?"

I stared in utter horror at what Ashe just said. I didn't even know what to say back. For the record, I never have told my kids to shut their mouths. I tell them to be quiet, to stop,or to knock it off. So I had no clue at all where this statement came from. And it sounded awful coming from a 3 yr old grinning at me.

"No honey!!! You don't say that! You just need to use your indoor voice, ok?"
"NO MOMMY I GONNA KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT!"
"Ashe, we dont say that."
"WHY NOT?"
"Cause it's not a good thing to say."
"IT'S NOT?"
"No. We dont say that. We say quiet, or hush, or indoor voice, or quiet voice."
"OH........OK"


So of course the entire way to the store and back again I'm frantically trying to think where he would have heard that statement. Did J say it in hearing? Did Xavier say it? My precious 3 yr old is running around saying Shut My Mouth and people are going to think I talk like this to him all the time and wow, that looks bad! But I don't say that!!! SO Where did he learn it????



Come to find out he learned it from his 3 yr old friend, who learned it from his 5 yr old sister, who learned it from...well we lost track at this point. But I had brought this story up the other night with some friends in bafflement over beers, and my friend piped up "Oh he must have heard that from my son. I heard him say it the other day and I was like "WHAAAAA???" I must admit I felt so much better knowing Ashe learned it from a 3 yr old than hearing it from an adult. But still, if he's picking up phrases like this from peers at 3, I need to start preparing myself from what he will pick up in middle school.