I think Ben has been using this phrase for awhile, but I only recently picked up on it. Personally, I think foreminding falls somewhere between reminding and forewarning. In some cases, Ben makes up words for the sake of efficiency (cheddar + shredded cheese = shredder) but a word like foreminding offers a subtlety in meaning that neither reminding nor forewarning can handle on their own. You might get foreminded of a dental appointment, for instance, but a hair appointment requires only a reminder.
When Ben was still eating in a high chair, he used to play what we called “scary monster.” He put his hands in the air like claws and started growling. When we were all distracted watching his scary monster act, he would dart his hand over to the nearest plate, swipe somebody’s food, and stuff it in his mouth. Usually, Sophia was the Artful Dodger’s victim. Looking back, the growl was just foreminding us of his love for food.
Once when we were visiting grandparents, Grandma made a large batch of bacon for BLTs. Sophia tried foreminding Grandma of Ben’s great love of bacon before turning her back on Ben and the plate of bacon. Alas, Grandma’s faith in his self-control was completely unwarranted and the BLTs were mighty light on the B.
This week we made a “BIG” salad, which as many of you know, is like a salad, but bigger, with lots of stuff in it. I foreminded Ben to wash his hands with soap and he told me that root beer was his new soap. I place the comment in the same genre as going to the bathroom online, another one of his classics.
Ben loves peeling carrots.
I was trying to get the homemade ranch dressing started and my foreminding him to turn the carrots while peeling was not as effective as I had hoped.
With grilled chicken and tater tots, our BIG salad was everything we had hoped it would be (if a little scant on carrots) and we drizzled everything with ranch dressing.
