Little Treasures

I have always liked the Bible verse (Luke 2:19) that says, "But Mary treasured up all of these things and pondered them in her heart." The verse has a parallel in Luke 2:51, where again it says, "But his mother treasured all these things in her heart." In both cases, the verses refer to Mary observing and reflecting upon who her child was and how people reacted to him. I can just imagine these moments being seared into her memory for preservation. This blog is sort of like that for me, a chance to sear the everyday treasures of life into my memory and preserve not just the event, but how it made me feel.

If any of you out there know me well, you probably know that I have a slight love affair with the English language. This manifests itself in a number of ways, from the internal cringing of hearing or reading a misused vocabulary word, to my inner "Dr. Earls" wanting to smack someone for putting punctuation on the wrong side of a quotation mark, from becoming anxious when I see it/it's, their/there/they're, effect/affect, etc used incorrectly. I don't even want to discuss how "non-words" like "irregardless" or "supposably" make me feel. So it may surprise some of you that I am absolutely in love with Lukas' misuse of the English language, and that I rarely correct him for fear of missing out on his colorful interpretation of words, phrases, and grammar in general. For me, this has turned into an unexpected treasure, and one that is definitely worthy of preservation.


If you really think about it, "I,me,my," "you,your," and "he/him/she/her" are sort of hard concepts to master. This has never been so apparent as when observing a two-year old trying to grasp them. The conversation tends to go something like a "who's on first" bit from Laurel and Hardy. Example:

Steph: That's yours, Lukas.
Lukas: That's yours.
Steph: No not mine, yours.
Lukas: Yours?
Steph: No, yours Lukas.
Lukas: Yours?

You get the idea...

Another example comes again from Lukas' repetition of anything he hears.

Steph: Lukas, do you want me to rub your head?
Lukas: Rub his head?

I found that so endearing that now I just ask it this way:
Steph: Lukas, can I rub his head?
Lukas: Rub his head!

When he wants to be held, he also says, "Hold you?" I just eat this stuff up.

Here are some examples of other common misuses:
"What's you name?" (emphasis on the word "you"- he always accents that word)
"Where's you glasses?" or "You got you glasses on?" (again, emphasis on "you")

And lately, he is very concerned with any type of injury that Scott or I might have.
Lukas (while looking at the scar from a mole I had removed): You got an ow-ey. What you did?
Steph: Well, I had a mole removed at the doctor, and it made this scar.
Lukas (after about 5 seconds): You got an ow-ey. What you did?

Repeat, repeat, repeat. Scott can confirm that Lukas and I have had this same conversation about 20 times in the last month.

Adverbs are not immune either. The other day, Lukas was looking at the ring that Scott gave me for our ten-year anniversary last December.
Lukas: You ring is sprinkly!
Steph: Do you mean sparkly?
Lukas: It's sprinkly.
Steph: It is sprinkly, isn't it?

Finally, I love how Lukas incorporates his everyday lessons into his playtime. A few months ago, I overheard Lukas disciplining his toys. He was playing with Skarloey, Thomas, and Percy from his Thomas the Train set and all of the sudden I heard him say, "Not nice Skarloey! You not nice! You need to think about it!" He then proceeded to put Skarloey on the time-out chair. When I asked him what Skarloey had done, he simply replied, "He tricked Thomas!" I said, "Oh." I think Skarloey had tricked Thomas in an episode of Thomas that he had seen recently...I guess it stuck with him! Sometimes Lukas will even put himself in the time-out chair. When asked why he is sitting there, he simply says, "He threw toys."

I am feeling very blessed today, and especially grateful to have these Lukas-isms to treasure up and ponder in my heart.