Taking Baby Steps

So my wife and I find ourselves raising twin teenagers (16 years old), Laura and Nate, in our 60's.  Did not see that coming!  They have been with us for 6 months now and there have been a lot of adjustments on both sides.  I was sharing some episodes at work today and one of the guys said that I should start a BLOG about this adventure.  So I am.  And it has been and, I am certain, will continue to be quite an adventure. 

After coming off of the mission field, we found a little house that we could snuggle in to and recuperate. No pressure.  No responsibility.  Peace and quiet.  Or so we thought.  We had an upstairs, but didn't need it except when guests might come for a visit.  Did I mention that the twins are a boy and a girl?  Our guest room idea did not last long.  So last October we remodeled our house.  We added two bedrooms upstairs with a common area that separates them. We enrolled them in school and in sports.  Laura in JV softball and the Nate in band and soccer.

So there you have the context of this BLOG.  I thought our experiences might be interesting to share with others, perhaps to serve as a warning to my over-50 friends or perhaps provoke a chuckle and a head shake by others.  I plan to "catch you up" from the last six months.  But for today, I will share this.

Learning The Language - One of us must be wrong! And it can't be me!

The other day, we were sitting at the table talking when the Laura used the word "Observate".  Ever hear that word before? Me neither.  So I attempted to correct her by telling her the correct word is "observe" or to make an observation.  "No, Papa, the word is Observate.  Laura, that is not a word. Papa yes it is too.  Laura, it is not in the dictionary. Papa, yes it is. OK Laura, let me show you."

So I googled it.  What else does a "hip" Papa do when he is in a pinch?  Guess what.  I found it.  It is not in the Webster's Dictionary.  But it is in the Urban Dictionary.  observate: to observe a person, place or thing. What is the Urban Dictionary you ask? I had no clue, but thankfully, Google strikes again!

The Urban Dictionary is a crowdsourced online dictionary of slang words and phrases that was founded in 1999 as a parody of Dictionary.com and Vocabulary.com by then-college freshman Aaron Peckham. Some of the definitions on the website can be found as early as 1999, however most early definitions are from 2003. At the start of 2014, the dictionary featured over seven million definitions, while 2,000 new daily entries were being added.

So it seems now we are making up words and adding them to a dictionary of made up words.  And our children think that they are legitimate words.  They use them in their conversations!! How we will ever keep up! How will we ever set things aright?  And what on earth would Daniel Webster say of he knew!!!!  Next episode coming soon....