At least I know he's paying attention in music class...

We found it necessary -- and I hope this is common to all families -- to spend some minutes with our children instructing them as to acceptable euphamisms for their bottoms. The perils of the youngest one learning to use the toilet resulted in far too many conversations about bottoms and potties and, well, an unfortunate increase in some rather vulgar terms...not vulgar on an adult level, but vulgar on the account of the words coming out of small children's mouths.

So, on the list was:

bottom
derriére
caboose
sit-upon
backside

...and then Zooey, age 8, came up with "Coda."

"Coda?" his dad wondered. I was equally confused.

"Like in music," Zooey answered with confidence.

Now, my husband is a musician. He knows exactly what a coda is, but he couldn't figure out how that applied.

Zooey rightly discerned that we needed a little explanation. "It's a little something extra in the end," he said. "Sister Mary taught me about it in music class."

We laughed -- no, guffawed -- for a full five minutes. Coda made the list.

Sister Mary, our 60-something liturgist at church and school -- will be so pleased when I tell her. No, really...she has a delightful sense of humor.

--Sparki