Mooooove!

Kyle has been adding new words to his vocabulary every day; for the most part you have to either be his mom or dad or have nothing better to do than watch every move he makes and every place he looks so you can use context to make an educated guess of what he’s saying.

His newest addition seems to be “Move” which when he says it is more like “Mooooo.” He says it kind of insistently and while it’s not ugly, it’s not cute. When he says it to me, it’s usually because I’m laying on one of our big stuffed dogs and he wants on it. Usually I say, “Well, actually, I’m laying on it right now. You can have it when I’m done with my turn, though.”

We were at Target on Friday and I realized that as I’m wheeling the boys around in their stroller, he’s telling anyone who is stopped in our way to move. I liked that he used it right, but then I crinkled up my face because it’s just rude and I don’t want him saying that. Not to mention that if the other people had heard they'd probably think he was moo-ing at them, implying that they could stand to put in a little time at Curves.

So I was pondering where he got this charming word and sentiment from and my first thought was that he’s back at day care so maybe he’s heard it there. Then it dawned on me. Dave and I are to blame.

One of our dogs, Katie – a shepherd mix – is actually to blame. If she wouldn’t be in the way all the time, we wouldn’t have to tell her to move in a very irritated tone of voice. She is our sweet little baby, but she is very needy and is pretty high strung (hence the anti-anxiety medication she takes every night to the tune of $47 per month). She is very talented about getting in our way and nearly tripping us at every turn. A perfect example is her stepping on the back of my slip-on shoes while I was walking a few months ago. A few months ago I said, “Katie, why are you stepping on my shoes?” Dave answered for Katie, “Because I can’t get up your butt.”

So at least 37 times a day, everyone in the house hears, “Katie! Move!” or just “Move!!!” This is my first real experience with one of my kids adopting one of my undesirable behaviors; it’s not my most shining parental moment, but it’s relatively tame. Dave and I just need to stop doing it. We’re thinking of trying out one of these three options:
1. Pardon me, Katie.
2. Just ignoring it, since it’s white noise to her anyway.
3. Katie, get the f$%* out of the way.”

My keen maternal instincts tell me that option three probably isn’t our best plan of action unless we want Kyle’s next word to be the f-bomb (we don’t), so I think we’ll try out the first two. What do you think?