[Bleep!]

Audrey, Ethan, and I were playing an innocent game of Hi-Ho Cherry-O when Audrey leaned over and asked, "Mom, do you know what the s-word is?"

Her sober face told me I was in for a weighty conversation.

"What do you mean by the s-word?" I quizzed her as I mentally began to fill out the paperwork required to withdraw her from public school.

"You know.... the s-h-word..."

She whispered since Ethan was sitting right there.

Now I was feeling a controlled upsetness. "Well, do you know what it is honey?" Did I really want to know the answer to that??

"Yeah, s-h-u-t-u-p," she cautiously spelled. "And it's really bad to say, huh Mom?"

Relieved, I said, "Yeah, that's really a bad word."

"Oh and how about the d-word? That's bad too." I could tell she liked stealing this small moment where she was "allowed" to say these things.

"And what word is that?" I asked, feeling enormously safer asking her this time.

"D-u-m-m-y."

And back we went to our innocent game of Hi-Ho Cherry-O...