Slimy, Slurpy Word Play

Johann has inherited my love of words. He wonders about their origins and savors literature filled with words that paint pictures and appeal to the senses. Of course as a 6-year-old boy, lately he tends to be fascinated by gooey, gross words. His latest two favorites are “slurp” and “slime”. He likes to pronounce them as follows: When saying “slurp” imagine you are actually slurping something. Think about the sound you would be making and say the word to imitate that sound pattern, placing emphasis on the “ur”. Your voice should dip down in the middle and rise up at the end like a question. (Sl-ur-r-r-rp!) When saying “slime” pretend you are a jolly Igor. Emphasize the long “i” sound and repeat the word three times. Then repeat the sequence at least three times. As a wild card, for the last time you say “slime”, occassionally say it as if you are also laughing it (ha, ha, ha) when you get to the vowel. (Sli-i-ime! Sli-i-i-ime! Sla-ha-ha-hime!!!!!!!)

Johann’s heard the word “slurp” before, but it really clicked in his mind a few nights ago when we read Maisy Makes Lemonade. He giggled for at least 10 minutes imagining Eddie, the elephant, being so thirsty he couldn’t wait for cups and started slurping the lemonade right out of the pitcher. Sl-ur-r-r-rp! As Eric predicted, Johann immediately paired “slurp” with “ooze”. They do go together like peanut butter and jelly. And what does Johann like to slurp? Why oooooze juice, of course!!!

The biggest “slime” influence I would have to say is from the Kratt Brothers. Johann loves all their shows, especially Zoboomafoo on PBS. They did an episode entitled “Slimy Buddies”, where all the animals were slimy for one reason or another. Johann loved all the animals. My personal favorite was the red salamander. The Kratts made a point of making a slime machine to make themselves very slimy in order to properly and fully enjoy the slimy animals they encountered. In the middle of the show they re-slime themselves in a pond covered with slimy algae to stay slimy for the rest of their creature adventures.

The first jack-o-lantern:
Commissioned by a neighbor

Our neighbor brought us a pumpkin and asked us to photograph it once we carved it, so he can share it with his daughter studying abroad via email. At first Johann didn’t want to cut the pumpkin open, since it was different from how we usually do Halloween. To avoid the knives and make it something in which he could have more participation, we’ve usually kept the pumpkins whole and let him draw faces with his markers. But he relented because we had promised our friend to carve the pumpkin. Johann designed the face, which turned out to be so complicated, Eric ended up doing nearly all of the carving. But it is so cool. Move over Martha Stewart!

Making a pumpkin pie…
Or maybe just a mess!

Johann was put in charge of separating all the seeds from the pulp, so that I could roast them with oil and salt. He got more and more into it. By the time all the seeds had been pulled out, he didn’t want to give up the pumpkin pulp, claiming that there were still more seeds to find. He was making pumpkin pulp pies, handprints, sculptures. I didn’t notice at first, because I was doing the dishes. Johann called to me from the diningroom, “Look, Mommy! I’m slimy like the Kratt Brothers!” When I came into the room and saw the unfolding mess, I protested. But Eric said to let him go, since Johann has never had the fun of making mud pies. We don’t have a back yard. I answered that I’d never had that kind of fun either, even though we did have a back yard. Then I remembered why.

Look Mommy!
Can I have a hug?

My mom never let us get dirty and we got screamed at if we ever did. Come to think of it, I got yelled at a lot. It’s amazing how some of those things become so engrained, you start acting on them without thinking about it. I thought about my father telling me when Johann was two that I was a good mother because I let Johann have fun and get dirty. My mom hated both that I would let Johann get dirty and that my father would say what he did. I looked at Johann’s excited face, said who cares what Grandmom Holoviak thinks, put another thick layer of newspaper underneath the existing newspaper on Johann’s side of the table and said, “Slime away!” I did request, however, that he try to keep it on the table and not let it get into the carpet. Eric concurred, since he actually volunteered to clean up this time. He didn’t want to have to clean pumpkin guts out of the carpet any more than I did. Johann did a very good job of practicing controlled slimage. By the time I got him into the bathtub, Johann had rubbed the pumpkin slime on both arms up to his armpits! He had a ball, though, and got lots of practice saying, “Sli-i-i-ime! Sli-i-i-i-me! Sla-ha-ha-ha-hime!!!”