The finer points of vocabulary

I'm continuously amazed by the Monkey and the process by which he's learning to speak and understand language. Here are a couple of examples of very humorous situations where his vocabulary was just a little off.

Last night, we got to talking over dinner about fireants and how we could rid them from our yard. I told him that lots of the ants live underground, so there's no way to kill them. He said, "What if we just put in an ah-rarming budge?" It was clear that he had a very particular phrase he was trying to say, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I asked him to repeat it. "What if we just use an ah-rarming budge?" Ann and I both looked at him quizically, and then Ann said, "Do you mean an alarming bulge?" He said yes. As it turns out, he has a book about Mt. Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii - one of his favorites. In the book, it mentions how the eruption started off as an "alarming bulge" in the ground. Apparently he thought that if you wanted to get rid of something underground, you just have to stick an alarming bulge down there and wait for it to blow up. We haven't read that book in several weeks, but for some reason that concept, and that particular phrase, had stuck in his head.

A couple of weeks ago he asked if he would always need to wear glasses. Ann and I told him that he might be able to get contacts some day, and maybe even have surgery. He thought about that for a moment and said, "I'll just tell my wife that she can't have any babies." I had no idea what he was talking about, and then it hit me. I had a vasectomy back in December, and had told him at the time that I was having surgery so that Mommy wouldn't have any more babies. Apparently he believed that sterility was the point of ALL surgeries. We assured him that there were many different kinds of surgeries, and that if he had surgery on his eyes his wife would still be able to have babies.

I think this is a fascinating insight into how little kids comprehend language and interpret what you say. Just goes to show you that 75% understanding might be worse than none at all.