The Evolution of Name Calling

Last week Nolan called me "stew". I actually should spell it "stu" because he was in the midst of the word stupid when he realized that he was making a big punishable mistake. He rapidly learned that we don't call people stupid, among a slew of other words from who knows where he picked up- at least one came from the movie Cars; from the truck that calls Lightening McQueen a moron (or boron as it was repeated by my son) but I digress. He caught himself before the word came out but I felt like since the intent was there, he still deserved a time-out. I said, "Nolan, what did you call me?" to which he replied "What mom? I said stew- it's dinner". Touche. I had to laugh (inwardly) at his quick thinking and alas, he didn't get the time out. Now he has taken to calling us random innocuous names that can't get him in trouble but for the tone of his voice. Aaron was called a "wrinkle" this morning and me a "dump truck" (which was morphed into from the word dumb.... Even though we realize that we still have a lot of work to do, at least I need not fear outbursts of real curse words in church.