Charlie at Three

     The other night at the Oktoberfest dinner at the new Chinook School Gymnasium, a friend and I got to talking about being full (the food was delicious!).  I told her that when my mother was little and second or third helpings were offered, the polite refusal was, “My sufficiency is suffenseful.”  My aunt’s five-year-old rendition of this was “my shimmy shirt and pants are full” which, of course, stuck and the family has said this ever since.  (Never mind that I’ve tried recently to find the word ‘suffenseful’ in various dictionaries and cannot.  I still like Mona’s rendition.)
     My son came up with a number of wonderful words which have also been incorporated into the family vocabulary.  He was probably three when he announced that he thought Granny was volumptuous.  He was right.  And another time he called me in a panic from the bathtub saying that the water was about to overfloat.  Right again.
     My favorite Charlie-ism, though occurred when he was at the Claremont Country Day School in Berkeley, also when he was three or four.  The teachers had been doing a little learning unit on music and the time had come for a review.  When the children were asked, “What do you call it when two people sing the same song at the same time?” there was dead silence.  Then Charlie burst forth, “I know!  I know!…. A coincidence!”  Bravo, Charlie!
     I doubt that I ever said anything clever, wittingly or un.  If so, it did not become a part of the family lore.  It was my behavior that was talked about – usually my naughty or foolish behavior.  Like the time my mother got out the Christmas paraphernalia and handed me my Christmas stocking.  I remember putting it on and asking where the other was.  I also remember the incredulous look on my mother’s face when she said, “Why Sydney, you remember your Christmas stocking, don’t you?”  I didn’t…  but now I remember the story every Christmas and, again, feel chagrined.
     It occurs to me that maybe Charlie feels the same way when he thinks about those words he confused.  What’s interesting or even delightful to parents is often seen in a different light by their children.  Even adult children.