Actually

Actually is one of Jake's favorite words. (Viva likes to use it, too, but not quite as much.) Jake draws out each syllable when he says it and it never fails to make Mark and I chuckle when we hear him. He uses it appropriately--that's not why we laugh--it's just amusing to hear a four year old say "Ac--tual--ly...."

One day Jake said to me "I don't know what you mean. Actually, I don't usually know what you mean." I was chuckling over his use of the word, so it took me a minute to process his sentence. Really?! He doesn't usually know what I mean? He was just being silly. He's quite bright and I'm pretty sure he knows what's going on 90+% of the time.

Tonight I heard him pull it out with the Ninjago Lego skeleton dude. He said "Actually that guy with four hands has none of the four weapons." (I think I asked if I had given him all the Lego pieces for the set. I guess I didn't. I don't actually know where the missing weapons are.)

Jake has helped me to see that most of us underutilize the word actually. Go ahead and work it into a few conversations today. Don't forget to draw it out dramatically. It's more effective that way.