Conkerdoodle

Yesterday, I was having a conversation with The Wife and we were recalling funny things that the kids say. There was one odd word that Azure had made up a couple of months ago that I was trying to remember. Then today, after I read this post about yumpindumpin, I forced myself to dig into the depths of my brain and find the word. It’s conkerdoodle. What’s a conkerdoodle you might ask? Well, that’s the fun of made up words, they can mean anything you want.

For us, conkerdoodle was a funny little name Azure had for some of his stuffed animals, or his sister, or us. Of course, who was a conkerdoodle changed from moment to moment, according to his whims. The funniest thing happened one morning when I went into Azure’s room to wake him up for school. I went into the room and he was still asleep, so I leaned down by the bed, pretty close to his face, to admire him while he was sleeping. There wasn’t any movements, smiles, snickers, or anything except regular breathing, so I figured he was in a deep sleep. After about 10 seconds of watching him, he suddenly says “conkerdoodle!” and then opens his eyes and starts laughing. Needless to say, I was a bit startled. We had a good time laughing about that one.

Another odd word that’s managed to stick in our family’s vocabulary is shou-shou. For the kids, it’s always been a traumatic experience when The Wife “disappears” into the bathroom for a shower. There have been many battles between them and myself about whether they can “tell Mama one more thing”, or just leave her alone for 10 stinking minutes. So, it’s little surprise that one of the first few words that Bronze started using was shou-shou, for when her Mama was in the shower.

The other day, I was dropping Azure off at school and his best friend wasn’t there that day. He was feeling sad since she was gone on vacation and didn’t want me to leave to go to work. He started to cry just a little as I went out the door. Through the window, I quickly flashed him the sign for “I love you”, which is a staple in our household. This immediately diffused his sadness as he smiled and gave me the “I love you” sign back. I was able to turn and walk away, knowing that he would be ok without his best buddy by his side that day.

I love having little inside jokes, words, signs, etc. with my family. It’s such a powerful feeling to share that connection with them. Find that special someone in your life and give them a big conkerdoodle! You’ll be glad you did.