Family Lingo

Funny how made-up phrases work their way into family vocabulary. Growing up, we dubbed the foam pads we saved for floor sleeping, "the bozoes." There was "big bozoe" and the "little bozoes." Once when discussing where we would be able to put our overnight guests, my dad said, "Don't worry, we'll just pull out the bozoes." We had some explaining to do.
We also called any little particles of food or foreign matter, "nerdsies." That word has been absorbed into our family dictionary too. "Would you vacuum up all the nerdsies under the dining room table?" And when we do allow our kiddos to indulge in the actual box of nerds candies, which they love, there are plenty of those to be vacuumed up too.
Some of the words are adopted due to the cute way a child used to say it. Friends of ours call marshmellows, shmarmellos, because that's how their 4 year old pronounced it. Benjamin has been instrumental in developing new words for our family: grips for grits, applesock for applesauce. He asks for mushrooms, when he means marshmallows, and tater tots when he means pop tarts. Timothy used to ask for kiweewee when he wanted kiwi. Sometimes we use the word long after the child has corrected their error or even if no children are present. It's a way of reminiscing about their early cuteness I guess.