Ewwww

I am not sure what he is holding, but AJ is definitely saying "ewwwww" in this picture. It is one of his favorite words lately, and the part that interests me about his usage of this word is that he has figured out that certain items are socially undesirable, dirty and/or gross. AJ's Uncle Dave confessed that it may have started when he was babysitting and let an "ewwww" slip when he went to change a diaper and discovered that it was of the poopy variety. He said AJ looked at him and mimicked the "ewww" sound. AJ's nanny also uses ewww to indicate to him that things are dirty or gross, like picking up food off the floor and putting it in his mouth or picking up a cigarette butt in the parking lot.

Lately, AJ has become fastidious about his changing pad and inspects it for any little bit of lint or mark. Nothing is too small for him to miss, including a tiny piece of thread that fell off his shirt and stray marks from crayons that he is constantly clutching, even while he has his diaper changed. At least we know that he does not need glasses. If his inspection turns up something he will point at it and give a prolongued "ewwwwwwwwwww" with great relish. The first time I saw him inspect the pad, he discovered a microscopic brown spot that could conceivably have been a nano speck of #2 from an earlier change and shamed my mothering skills with a loud "ewwwwwwww!" I am dreading the day when he points at an actual person and says ewwwww without being able to explain that he has spotted a drip of ice cream that fell onto the guy's shirt.

In the meantime, since he links the concept of ewwww to knowing that certain items are dirty, I have started to adopt using ewwww as a shorthand way of telling him when things are off-limits. So at our house, for the time being the litter box is ewww, used kleenex in the garbage is ewww, and the toilet brush is a huge ewwwwwwwww. When he is 16, I won't be able to get away with teaching him with phrases like "unequal pay for women and minorities--ewwwww" or "drunk driving---ewwwwww", but for now it works.