Young swinger

I really love linguistics and especially wordplay. You know—puns, pidgin, double entendre, esoteric languages between friends. I could nerd out forever on this stuff and in fact, I do. My friend, Andy, is an eager wordplay teammate (in fact, the name of this post came from him) and we like to make up words like beleaguerent, for that variety of drunk who is displaying both the angry belligerent and the beleaguered victim at the same time. Or he might say something like, “Let’s get down to the pool so we can relaxificize ourselves!” because somehow it’s funny to make words longer than they need to be. (By the way, I learned that this process was especially rampant during the Revival days in America when attempts to describe the glory of Lord Jesus apparently necessitated the hijacking of grammar. I learned about this practice on San Diego public radio’s “Away with Words” but I cannot remember the actual word for it. Please help me out if you know what it is!)

SO, the experience I’m about to describe was such a treat for me! But first, have you heard the word "unadulterated"? Well, I looked it up and it means: pure; undiluted; without qualification, ie: milk can be described as unadulterated. But when it's used to describe fun, I have devised my own definition. I discovered the meaning of the word on a summer evening bikeride, warm flowery air at my face as I careened downhill in bare feet. Ever since that night, I have understood “unadulterated” to mean: "not tainted by the rules of the adult world; pure childlike expression." Ahhhhh...remember unadulterated, good time, butterfly in the belly fun??

Well, I babysat a 4 year old today. I am pushing this little boy on his swingset and he is having that kind of fun--laughing in a giggly, spazzy way that is part fun and part fear from the height of the swing.
He is SO HAPPY to have someone to push him on his swing!

Then he looks at me with a huge grin and big brown eyes, his arms and legs twitching with the sensation, and says, "My peepee feels exciting that you're here!" I have to ask him what he said to make sure that I heard him right and then of course I burst out laughing.

By far, my highest compliment this month! And spoken by someone blissfully unaware of the rules of adult etiquette as well as basic grammar. Unadulterated times two.