Stuff and Nonsense

Henry has apparently inherited his parents' propensity to play around with language, because he is constantly making up words. If you ask him what he's doing he'll often tell you, "I'm sivvin'!" And maybe, "I'm sivvin' and divvin' and pivvin'!"


A tree that's been knocked down (we had a big storm a few weeks back, and trees were uprooted all around us) has been "ned." Henry actually told me that "ned" means "knocked down," as in, "That tree got ned."


He also likes to make up names for contractors. A few months ago we hired a company to put a cap on our chimney. The woman on the phone told me that Dan would be stopping by, so I was able to answer Henry when he asked me who would be coming over. But when two men showed up Henry decided the other one was named "Fuv." For a week or two he played "Fuv and Dan" with his Duplo people. I won't go into details, but there was something about Fuv not stopping the truck for a train and getting chastised by Dan.


And finally, there's the Piz Store. One day Henry didn't like any of the choices I was offering him for a snack, so I asked him what he would like. "Piz," he said. I told him we were all out of piz at the moment. Where would we get more? "The Piz Store," he said. Of course. And not only that, but the Piz Store is on 43-North (a stretch of freeway near our house).


After the storms I mentioned earlier our village cleaned the trees up within a day or so, which really upset Henry. At the Piz Store, he informed me, those ned trees have not yet been cleaned up.

I'm guessing property taxes must be a lot lower near the Piz Store. Not surprising, I guess, considering it's right on the freeway.