He's Got a Mouth Like a Sailor

After returning from an afternoon walk we arrive at the front door where I ask the Bird to remove his shoes.
After some hesitation he sits down on the door mat and proceeds to take off his right shoe. It slips off and then he struggles at removing his left. Then I hear him mumble under his breath.

I wait a moment. Did I just hear him say what I thought I did?

In the calmest voice I respond, "What did you say?"

"Ah, Ship."

He did. He said what I thought I heard. Well, sort of.

Once again I wait and then respond calmly, "Where did you hear that?"

He looks up at me as he finally gets the shoe off his foot and matter-of-factly states, "Daddy. Daddy*, says 'Ah, Ship.'"

"Oh, I see." I say as we walk in the door as a scan the room for my phone so I can send 'Daddy' a text...

I speak with Mr. B+B over the phone about the Bird's choice of words and more importantly their origin. We decided that he would speak with the Bird that evening.

"Bird," says Daddy "Mommy told me that you said 'Ah, Ship' today. We shouldn't use words like those so let's don't use those words any more."

The Bird pauses and looks at him with a puzzled look on his face. I pretend that I'm really focused on dinner, but instead I'm watching this play out like a soap opera.

"But, Daddy," he says "you talk about ships EVERY DAY."


*He actually referred to him by his first and last name.