I Found the C(l)ock

Several weeks ago my son started saying something that sounded very rude.  We didn't know if he was saying "what" or "that" or "clock" but he seemed to be pointing at many things and saying "cock" a lot. 

Yesterday I think I figured it out.  About a month ago I went out of town on a girls weekend with some of my girlfriends.  My children and husband went to my in-laws and had a great time.  I didn't connect that it was not long after that that he began saying his mystery word.

Initially I didn't think much of it.  But my husband noticed it too, and the next week when we went on vacation to visit his brother's family, even they were noticing it.  It seemed like he would point to random things and say it.  I never could figure out any consistency in what he was pointing at, be it a wall, a person, an object or just somewhere "over there."

It became funny enough (and frequent enough) that my husband started telling people he was saying "clock" and couldn't pronounce the "L".  It sounded like a fine theory to me, but we don't say clock to him much at home.  We ask what time it is, but we don't refer to a clock.  We don't point regularly to one and there wasn't an emphasis on any clocks in the house that I remember.  So it was a theory, but not one I really believed in.  I thought it was just a good way to explain my potentially offensive child.

Then we went to visit my in-laws for the day yesterday.  And now I understand.  They have a large grandfather clock in their living room.  Every fifteen minutes, all day long, it makes pretty bongs to announce the time.  My son loves this clock.  He would look over, ask about it and we'd say, "clock, yes, that's the clock."  Sometimes, after several bongs he'd even go visit the clock and pat the case and say, "clock."

So he was inundated with information about large machines in houses that made noises and he was told this was, "clock."  I am guessing that what he was pointing to after that was things that made noises possibly, or large things at the edge of rooms.  I don't know.  At this age children extrapolate one word to such broad generalizations that it's hard to even make a connection sometimes.

But the mystery is solved in my mind at least.

The Big Boy Update:  Or not?  Just when I had the, "clock dilemma" solved, this morning as I got him out of bed he pointed at the blinds and as he was grabbing them said, "cock!"  Then he pointed through the blinds into the muddy lot next door and said, "cock!"  Perhaps it's just his new, all-purpose word?  In the words of the great Winnie the Pooh, "Oh, bother!"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  She climbed stairs yesterday.  I can't believe it, but she did.  More than one, and more than once.  It's a slow process, and they were very friendly stairs with wood and carpet treads and there were only two of them, but she made it. 


Fitness Update:  I ran over eight miles yesterday before we left for the day.  It seems like such an accomplishment, and yet there would still be five more miles to go if I am seriously going to take on this half-marathon.  And I need to get some speed going too.  They may have all gone home for the day if I run at the slow pace I'm going now.