Spanish Lessons

This past weekend, after a delicious dinner had been consumed, our family was sitting around our dinner table playing a rousing game of 'Simon Says'. Daniel was Simon, and was adding in a level of difficulty by giving directions using his newly mastered Spanish (oh to be a language sponge like a six year old).

'Simon Says... touch your ojos'
'Simon Says... touch your hombreras'

Well, this one stumped Suzy and I, for even though we both had multiple years of high school Spanish, neither of us knew that hombreras meant shoulders. It didn't take too many years of schooling for our son to pass us in his pursuit of academic excellence.

So, last night, as Suzy and I were in the midst of a tightly contested game of Sequence, we were discussing our past week, and Suzy mentioned something that Sammy had said. As soon as she said it, it tickled something in my memories of last week. I had heard him utter the same word, but had put it off as him making up funny words during the coarse of conversation. Well, this word, which I can't repeat as I don't want this blog marked as objectionable material (if you must know, it's the Spanish word for someone who is a member of the oldest profession), is definitely not something that you would say to someone who speaks Spanish. In fact, as I thought more about the incident, Sammy had used pretty good inflection, and definitely had a good accent going. After discussing it more with Suzy we decided we better nip this in the bud, so Sammy doesn't inadvertently offend half the population of Southern California.

Me being the adventurous father that I am, decided to tackle the conversation this morning as I was helping the boys get ready for school.

'Sammy, you know that there are some words that I don't like you saying, right?'

'Like butt!'

'Yes, Sammy, like butt.'

'And pee pee head.'

'Yes, pee pee head is also not okay.'

'And ...'

'Okay, okay Sammy, you get the picture. Well there was a word you said a couple of days ago that...'

It seemed like he and Daniel (who was eagerly eavesdropping) got the point, but I am a bit afraid of hearing from the teachers and/or offended Hispanic classmates/parents tonight.

So, if you find that you are on a dark corner in a bad part of Tijuana, and you see a scantily clad young lady who has a bug on her shoulder, my boys can probably help you out with any translations necessary.