Don't say "gelato"!

As with every family, there are words our children are not allowed to say.  I must admit since we have teenagers now, we have slacked up a bit.  But for the most part we are pretty consistent.  Like my children think the "s" word is shut-up.  Anyway, for some reason, my 4 year old thinks that gelato is a very bad word.  She makes this scared, worried face whenever anyone says it and runs to tell me.  She thinks it is the worst, 4 letter (well actually 5 letter word) there is.  We all now have joined in with her and the word can no longer be used in our house or the offender with get in "trouble". I've tried to figure out why she thinks this.  As I think back over when it started, it was when my children were first introduced to this wonderful Italian ice-cream. My good friend, who lived for a while in Italy, brought my younger ones to a real Italian gelato store in our home town.  Needless to say, they loved it!  Especially my 11 year old son who has very cultured taste buds. He would ask for it on a daily basis. Store bought ice-cream was no longer good enough.  Even Baskin-Robins and Dairy Queen were out!  I think at one point I got so tired of them asking for this expensive delicacy that I yelled out "don't even say gelato!"  Well, this must of stuck with my little MK and she has not forgotten it. It's just too funny and cute at this point to tell her that it's not a bad word but I know, as with all cute things our children do, it will come to end one day.  But in the mean time I just wanted to warn you not to say this word around us or you may have to be punished :o)