Adj. Cheerful or lighthearted.

Mom has made friends with a lady down the street. Her name is Shelley and she is married, but her husband travels a lot for work, so she and Mom are always going on walks together or chatting over glasses of wine. She is very nice, and she always seems to be in a good mood. However, Jerry, Mom’s boyfriend, isn’t sure if he likes her or not. “I don’t know, she’s always smiling. She’s too winsome for her own good. No one can be that happy all the time.” Mom just rolled her eyes.

Adjective. Extremely commonplace or overly sentimental.

Mom and I watched an old movie together over the holiday. “This is one of the best Christmas movies ever!” she told me. “It always makes me cry.” And, yep, a an hour into the movie Mom was sniffling and wiping her eyes. Maybe I won’t tell you what the movie is, in case you love it too, just like Mom. But I thought it was sappy and stupid. In a word, bathetic.

Adj. Old fashioned or old.

Grandfather Pembroke is still visiting. I must say, he is an old man. Maybe in his seventies? Maybe even his eighties? Anyway, he’s old–and he doesn’t have a cell phone. Hey, I don’t have one either, but I’m still “too young,” says Mom. But I know how to use one, and I hardly know any adult who doesn’t have one. But Grandfather doesn’t. He refuses to get one. “Why the hell do I need one of those damned things?” he will say. He is antediluvian about phones and other technology. He still uses a land-line phone, and he writes his letters on an old typewriter, not a computer like a normal person would. I don’t know, I think being antediluvian about somethings is kind of cool.

Noun. A bad-tempered, difficult, cantankerous person.

Grandfather is in town for a few days. He’s staying at a hotel, and not in our house. (He calls it a “nice little cottage,” even though it has three bedrooms.) He met Jerry, too. I don’t think he likes him much. We all went to dinner and Jerry sure did talk a lot. Jerry is a landscape architect and he talked about plants and the yards he was designing, and on and on. After, when Mom and I drove Grandfather to his hotel, he said, “Jerry is nice. But he sure does talk a lot.” He sighed. Mom just smiled to herself. Grandfather went on: “Besides, what the heck is a landscape architect? Isn’t he really just a glorified gardener? People and their inflated views of themselves. It’s boring! I’m sorry, but it is.” “Oh, Jack,” Mom said. “Don’t be such a curmudgeon.” Grandfather just sighed again.

Noun. Beginner, novice.

Mom’s boyfriend, Jerry, takes yoga with Mom. I see them practicing in the living room sometimes. Mom seems pretty good at it, but Jerry is clearly a neophyte. Mom can hold her balance and do all the poses, while Jerry is always groaning and grunting and losing his balance. “Gosh, this is tough,” he will mutter, breathing heavily. Meanwhile, Mom will be doing a headstand, looking relaxed and peaceful, breathing with ease.

Verb. To think, ponder.

Sometimes, teachers at school have to say my name a few times, loudly, because I’m cogitating. “Henry, Earth to Henry??” they say. “Stop day dreaming.” Once, I responded, “I’m not day dreaming, I’m cogitating.” Some kids in the class laughed. I guess they thought cogitate meant something dirty or gross. But Mrs. Patterson, my social studies teacher, said, “Well, cogitate on the lesson and the question I just asked you, okay?” Then she winked at me. I was pleasantly surprised she knew what it meant!

Adj. Childish, immature, silly.

I was watching a movie the other night on HBO. Mom usually doesn’t like me to watch HBO, but she was out with Jerry, so I figured why not? I ended up watching a movie about teenagers who are obsessed with sex and farts and other stuff like that. I suppose it was funny, if you like puerile humor. But I switched the channel when I heard Mom and Jerry drive up.

Adjective. Flexible, limber, bending easily.

Mom has started doing yoga. She says it helps clear her head and that it’s a great workout. Her new boyfriend, Jerry, does it too. They sometimes put out mats in the living room and turn on an instructional DVD. They look kind of ridiculous to me when they do it, twisting themselves into all these poses that look painful. Mom is better at it than Jerry. Probably because she is a lot more lithe than he is.

Noun. Biting or abusive speech or writing.

A lot of grownups give diatribes. Mom is always complaining about telemarketers, especially when they call durring dinner. When she is driving, she’ll go on about the tail-gaters or the people who drive like maniacs. My grandfather, Mr. Pembroke, is known for his diatribes about taxes. (Mom says all rich old men complain about taxes.) And when I thumb through the newspaper, I see a lot of diatribes in the letters to the editor section. It seems like a lot of grown-ups are just plain angry all the time. I wonder if I’ll be that way when I get older?

adj. Gloomily silent, morose.

When we lived in Tuscaloosa, Mom always said that our neighbor James was sullen. I guess that was true. He hardly said much and he often looked grumpy. But he was also nice. You just had to get to know him and then he would snap out of being so sullen.