(Sorry to disappoint you, Ate, but this is not a blog entry on Gloria Estefan.)
I realize I haven't written in a while, considering I was on a good blog roll a while back. Thanks to a million and one factors, words just don't come easily sometimes. (I'm sticking to that excuse. It sounds much more mysterious than "I'm a lazy blogger who would rather watch meaningless TV shows than write.")
Thinking about words reminded me about, who else, Martina. Although when thrown into a crowd of strangers, the 4-year-old morphs into a miniature statue devoid of speech, hearing or large movement, Martina is usually quite confident. At her gym, she will twist and turn and tumble without fear of injury. When you ask her anything (assuming you are not a stranger), she will answer with such aplomb that you will doubt your own reality. When she doesn't know the right word to use, she picks a word from her own special vocabulary, which I hope to legalize someday. Sparkly neever!!!
Over our Christmas vacation, I bought Martina a toy watering can so she could play with it in Hua Hin (never happened – it was high tide during our waking hours). When I was looking for it though, I couldn't remember what it was called. I asked my sister, who also couldn't remember the term at the time. While I was deep in thought, trying to remember "watering can", Martina came up to me and said,
"Oh you mean the water ting-ting?"
Water ting-ting. It rolls off the tongue better than "watering can" or "the thing you use to water the plants but not the hose or the sprinkler" (which is what I said before Martina offered her own term).
Before that vacation ended, Martina revealed another new word. She wanted ice for her drink (scotch, apparently) and stuck her head in the cooler. When she looked up, she asked,
"Where's the snapper?"
... which is a more descriptive word than "ice tongs". Now that I think of it though, "ice tong-tong" would've just knocked it out of the park. Martina, I think there is still room for improvement.
Addendum:
I discovered (yes, "discovered", not "recalled") that I had written previously about Martina's vocabulary. I read it and, because of what I suspect is vanity mixed with boredom, was pleasantly amused by my own entry. It's fantastic to have poor memory sometimes. My past surprises me.
Another addendum:
Let's not forget about the ching-ching!
