“How was the birthday party?” I asked David as we walked down the aisle of Costco. I had just picked him up from his first solo excursion into social life. He stopped short and looked up at me with a troubled expression. “Well, it was fun, but there was this one girl and she was kind of mean. And she said the “F” word.”
I felt a sick knot in the pit of my stomach. We never spoke that particular word, and as far as I knew, my five-year-old son shouldn’t even have been familiar with the term “the F word”.
“Oh honey,” I squatted down to make eye contact with him. “I’m so sorry.” I hesitated, and then leaned closer to him. “Would you please whisper into mommy’s ear exactly what words the little girl said?”
(I needed to know. Had she said “the F word” or had she, in the immortal words of Ralphie, actually uttered “the queen mother of all curse words”?)
Nodding solemnly, aware of the gravity of the moment, my little son put his mouth close to my ear and whispered, “Stupid.”
Stupid!
Masking the relief that washed over me, I composed my face into a proper look of horror and sadness and whispered, “STUPID, oh David, that is a bad, bad word. I hope you will never ever say it!”
And I thought, “Next week we’ll get to work on your spelling.”
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Welcome! My name is Andrena Paladini and this is a blog about family and love and faith and fun. I call it Paladini Potpie because a potpie is like an adventure in a crust. You never know what might come up, but it’s always going to be good!
Think of the best potpie you’ve ever eaten…hot flaky crust holding a rich savory sauce and all kinds of pieces of meat and vegetables…and who knows what?
As a family, we’ve chosen to live within the parameters of God’s love and protection. This is the crust of our Paladini Potpie. The crust never changes. Within this crust, the savory sauce of family love binds it all together. That is also fairly constant. But beyond the crust and the sauce we can add just about anything!
Good ideas come our way and we’ve adopted and adapted them to add to what John calls our treasure box of memories. These stories and ideas from John’s treasure box of memories are the ingredients I’m putting into our Paladini Potpie.
(Okay, so this ridiculous mixing of metaphors about treasure boxes and potpies is exactly what I’m talking about. Silly and ungrammatically correct. But both illustrations work… so we’ll mix them together and it’ll be just fine!)
John and I have been married for 30 years. Our children have wonderfully doubled in number since David married Amanda, Monica married Dan, and Matthew married Sarah.
And the newest little treats that have been added to our potpie are six adorable grandchildren - Ethan, Angelina, Nathan, Audrey, Maleia and Caleb!
I hope you’ll subscribe to my Paladini Potpie blog, and keep up with all the fun new ingredients I add. Hopefully you’ll enjoy our stories and ideas, and find something you’ll want to put into your own potpie! Bon appétit!
Paladini Potpie 
May 7, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Cute.
May 7, 2011 at 6:21 pm
They learn that word young, Andee. The other day, Hailey was shown a photo of the family together with baby Demetri. She pointed to Heather and said , “Mama.” At Kier: “Daddy.” At herself: “Baby.” and then at Demetri: “Stupid baby!”
It took everything her parents had not to bust out laughing, but they have no idea where she learned the term.
May 9, 2011 at 11:22 am
That was funny, Emily! They do learn fast.
May 7, 2011 at 6:42 pm
LOL!!!
May 9, 2011 at 9:30 am
HAHAH! This make me laugh every time!
May 11, 2011 at 12:34 pm
Me too