Band-Annes and Bo-Bos

I am generally a stickler for using the proper names for all body parts. We don’t use cutsie names for our body parts, both for safety and because most cutsie names sound like fingernails on a chalk board to me, and don’t baby talk to our children. How can I expect them to learn to speak properly if I sound like a babbling goose when I talk to them? However, babies come up with some interesting babbles while they are learning to speak, and occasionally a baby babble will be so darn cute that the entire family picks it up as the acceptable and appropriate verbiage and uses it forever more.

This doesn’t happen often, but when a baby babble sticks it sticks forever. This is why you will sometimes hear a Gordon child (or adult) ask for a “band-anne” instead of a bandaid courtesy of toddler Parker almost a decade ago. And this is why, from 2019 on, we will all refer to our belly buttons as “bo-bos”. When tiny toddling Mabel comes up pointing towards your mid-section while demanding to see your bo-bo you know exactly what she wants, and I just don’t have it in me to repeat it back to her using the correct “You want to see my belly-button?” like I would usually do. Really, when you think about it, is bo-bo any more ridiculous than belly-button anyways? 

Look at those lashes!