Sunday, January 30, 2011

A Vocabulary Lesson…



We have a few catch phrases that don’t make sense elsewhere, but have very specific meanings here at our house. I’d like to take a few moments to share…

HHOMC- Our only acronym, and coined by my father in reference to our house: Hammonton House Of Many Children. Ex. As planned, the whole family will meet at the HHOMC for lunch.

Shore Leave- An afternoon or evening alone and free of child-rearing responsibilities usually used for shopping in peace and quiet. Ex. Aimee spent her shore leave scouring AC Moore for discount scrapbook supplies.

Carter-safe- A product not containing peanuts (and until recently, eggs). Ex. We can’t buy that cookie mix. It isn’t Carter-safe.

28 cents- The average cost of a pull-up diaper, usually used when a child wakes up dry from naptime, and the pull-up can be reused at bedtime. Ex. You did a great job using the potty. You just saved us 28 cents!
Spin For It?- An opportunity to allow the “Wheel of Responsibility” to determine which parent will complete a particular task. Mostly used for diaper duty and other unpleasant jobs. Ex. Brenna is screaming that she missed the potty. Do you want to spin for it?

Jerrel!- My friend Jerrel, we call his name and raise our fists anytime something goes wrong that can’t be explained. He’s basically our go-to-guy when we want to blame something on someone. This originated this summer, when we found a Boston Red Sox sticker on Drew’s booster seat. I asked Drew where it came from and he responded by raising his fist in the air, while looking up and shouting, “Jerrel”! (Who is a good friend, but is also a noted Phillies Hater)-It should be noted that no one ever took responsibility for defacing the booster seat. Ex. This milk is sour and it isn’t even past the date yet. …JERREL!

Nowhere- Where whining will get you. We say this so often, that the kids will now even answer. Ex. Mom or Dad: “Hey, you know where all that whining is going to get you?” Any kid: “Nowhere!”

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a riot!! Only at your house or any other with more than 2or3 kids!! Love you all! Mom and Dad

Anonymous said...

Love the definitions!!! Of course Pops gets the prize with the first one. So glad we are able to help you out with some of the couple "shore leaves" with babysitting. ;)

Anlenie said...

I alway love these, Is nice to know where some of these originated from. Definetely getting a wheel of responsibility here, you guys should patent that. Oh what happened to fera..... (I can't spell it and didn't want to say the f word) I know is not originally yours but you are keeping the tradition, unless of course you are saving it ;)

Anonymous said...

Just gotta loved being around you all. It's like memories of our life but time condensed and in double time! LOL Aunt Nan

Gee-off said...

Ann, Franastanalana and the other words my Pop-pop was known to use are relatively unused excpet in conversations with my brothers which is why we didn't include them...