Lost in Translation......

Just so you know it is late and I am tired but I promised Emily I would get this done and so here it is. I tried to be witty but there is just nothing left in this brain. Anything that was left was sucked dry today while sitting on the bathroom floor reading "Thomas the train" and "Stinky Face" to Madelyn while silently praying she would hurry up and just "go"! Yes, that is right, I am in potty training hell, yes I know not that isn't a nice word but I think we all know it is justified. And by the way yes, she is 3 1/2! And further more this picture has nothing to do with the following post, it just makes me laugh when I see it, so I thought I would share it!

As a parent you are provided many opportunities to teach your children. These life lessons have a wide range when it comes to importance. One that comes to mind is the difficult task of trying to explain to a three year old why it is not appropriate or lady like to tell people to "watch" as you try your hardest to push out gas that has built up in your tummy and upon succeeding smiling and proclaiming with pride "that was me"! Try as I may there are times when it seems like no matter how hard I try somehow what I am trying to say just gets lost in translation. Let me give you an example.....It is Christmas time. Madelyn is finally at an age where she is beginning to understand the importance of Santa Clause. We loved reading books about him and singing songs explaining all the requirements that must be meet in order to receive a visit from the old man in red. However, we also wanted to impress upon Madelyn the true meaning of the holiday. So we talked about Jesus and how he was born in a manger. We even had a family home evening where Dallan reinacted Luke II using our porcelin nativity (needless to say that was a disaster, poor Joseph no longer has a head). For one small moment I thought I had mastered the art of teaching but soon knew there was a problem when I noticed that it wasn't Santa who was up on the house top listening to reindeer paws. No clearly something was very wrong when I sat Madelyn down and asked her what she was singing about in which she replied Cwismas. I said ohhh are you singing about Santa going down the chimney? She looked at me with the look of "Mom, you clearly don't know anything" and simply said "Mom, Heavenly Fodder comes down the chimney not santa". Do you see what I mean? Lost in translation. But I suppose it goes both ways. One day while driving through Tacoma I hear Madelyn sniffing something out when all of a sudden she says "Oooohh stinky cwap". I couldn't believe what I had just heard. Had she really just said crap? I quickly scanned my brain trying to remember any particular time I had used that word in front of her. Now I am not perfect and I definately say things I shouldn't but I knew I had never used that word in that context. So I said honey what did you say? I wanted to make sure I was hearing her correctly and sure enough she said "Mom, it smells like stinky cwap". While I sat there thinking of all the ways I was going to let Dallan have it for teaching her how to use that word Madelyn said "Mom, I touched a cwap". I said you did what? She said "I touched a cwap". I said really where did you do that and she said at the park and then it hit me she wasn't saying crap or at least she wasn't trying to say crap, what she was really trying to tell me was that it smelled like a stinky crab. Again, lost in translation. How about you? Has there ever been a time that something you said just didn't sink in the way you would have liked?