Shhhhhhhh!

Shit is my favorite expletive. It's such a useful little word. With many ways to use it. Most often, it's the first word I utter when I hurt myself. Like when I stub my little toe on the the corner of a chair for the third time in a day...Shit! (interjection)

Or when I'm making a grilled cheese sandwich and the phone rings, so I answer it and forget I've got buttered bread in a hot pan on the stove. And I don't remember until I smell burning bread...Shhit! (interjection, again)

Or when Ginger is running amok at two o'clock in the morning, barking at the neighbor's barking dog, and I'm chasing her down in the grass while she plays a festive game of keep away...you little shit. (noun)

Then there's the obvious verb form, mostly said to Mike when I need him to make a quick decision...shit or get off the pot. (idiom)

Sometimes I use it to describe my day...shitty (adjective)

Or to highlight a particular part of an event...when the shit hit the fan (another idiom)

And sometimes I just say it when I find something to be particularly funny or I've been duped...shit. (yet another interjection)

You get the picture.

These days it comes out more as a, "shhhhhhhh," and it ends before I get to, "it." If the, "it" makes it out, it's usually muttered so low under my breath the sound is lost, thereby losing the effect.

Before the kidlets were born, Mike and I decided we'd stop the colorful language in the home when little ones are present. We started getting into the habit the day we brought the boy home and for the most part have done a pretty good job. This doesn't mean we don't use expletives at all...we're just careful. Most of the time. Mike can still be expressivel at work. Me, not so much. So I slip up more.

Today, the bunny was outside and I heard, "shhhhhhhhh a mosquito bite me!"

I asked her to repeat what she had just said and she replied, "ouch-shhhhhhhhhhh a mosquito bite me!"

I've been busted.