Those of you who know me--and I suspect anyone who reads this blog does--know that I lost my daughter just over a month ago. If you're a blog reader who doesn't know my story, here's where you can get caught up: Eliza's blog. But life with a five-year-old doesn't stop just because life with a very sick almost-three-year-old does. And I'm grateful for the routine--and chuckles--that come with it.
We've been talking a lot about idioms lately. In case you're rusty on your literary terms, an idiom is not, as my dad likes to say, the cousin of an idiot. It's an expression. Sometime in the past few months, Luke decided to start wondering about all those very-common-but-really-quite-illogical expressions we adults use without even thinking about it. Hit the road. Cat's got your tongue. Beat around the bush. Drop the ball. Play it by ear. If you don't believe me, trying paying attention to how many idioms you use in a day--or even in an hour--one time. If you're anything like me, you'll lose count.
So a very frequent answer to lots of questions around our house is, "It's just an expression that means...". And, apparently, Luke is catching on.
In the car the other day, he was describing something to me--and I confess that my foggy brain has lost track of exactly what it was--but it was really Big. Maybe it was a school project...or something he read about in a book...or something he dreamed about. Anyhow, it was something Big. As big, he explained to me, as a popsicle.
I waited a minute for the explanation. Nothing. So I asked.
"What do you mean, as big as a popsicle?"
Came the answer from the back seat, with a smile on his face that I couldn't see but could hear in his voice: "Expression!"
Right. Of course. Naturally. Or some other idiom.
As in, Mama might just be the cousin of an idiom.
2 comments:
He cracks me up! You MUST get Fred Gwynne books ("The King Who Rained", "Chocolate Moose for Dinner" etc) from the library for him if you don't have those yet. He'll absolutely love them.
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