Tale of the Boon

A child’s ability to absorb language is amazing. Gracie knows words that I am sure I didn’t teach her. Like No.

The new word that has me amazed, because it comes with object association too, is boon. Balloon to those who pronounce all the letters in a word, but a boon to Gracie.

I know she has heard this word before in Sandra Boynton’s Belly Button Book, but it is a book that we rarely get more than two pages into before Grace reclaims it and tosses it aside to fetch another.

Where did she learn boon from? How does she know what a boon is??

In the fruit and cake crescendo to the delightful three-year-old birthday party we attended Sunday, the snack room with decorated with balloons tied to the back of everyone’s chair.

I moved out of the way with Gracie to let the older kids march in and we observed through the plate glass.

All of a sudden there was pointing and shrieking.

Boon! Boon! Booooooonnnn!

Before we left, she spotted the balloons tied to goodie bags.

Boon! Boon! Booooooonnnn!

The entire way out to the car I was smacked in the face with her new pink boon. The entire ride home her new pink boon inspired laughter, but blocked my view out the rear window. For the rest of the day, the new pink boon was her sidekick.

This morning though, the boon was on it's last leg. It's lack of springy floatation warranted furrowed brows as Gracie tried to fling it into the air as a revitalization technique. No go. It plummeted back down. No more boon.

Now I am just left with the nagging questions of how she even knew what a balloon was and if this will be the start of screeching for balloons every time we walk past the floral department at the grocery store.