Quote: Anyone can be cool, but being a YO, that takes practice. ~JNM

“But Mommy I want to be a YO”. This is all I have been hearing from my then two year old. No matter what I told him to do his response was “but Mommy I want to be a YO”. Now of course I had no idea what he was talking about. Asked him several times what he was talking about and he would never give me an understandable explanation so safe to say this went on for weeks. Finally, one night, we were leaving our cousins house and as we got into the car and commenced to drive away my little monster was fast at work, taking his coat off, pulling his pants leg up and raising up his shirt sleeve. He had also taken off his hat. I turned to him as we are approaching a stop sign and I said “Fatt what are doing?! It’s cold outside, put your coat back on, pull you pants leg down, what in the world are you doing?! He responded “but Mommy I want to be a YO!!” Okay I had had enough! I put the car in park and with my hands outstretched and the look of confusion on my face I said loudly “FATT what does that mean, what are you talking about, help me to understand what is happening, WHO IS A YO, WHAT IN THE WORLD IS A YO??!!!” And as calmly as he could with a look on his face that said ‘duh dummy’ he responded “MA, brother, uncle CJ, Clevon, Daddy, Jay…they all yo’s mommy and I want to be a yo too, is that okay with you?!” (Meanwhile his hands are now outstretched like lady don’t you get it!!). That’s when it all became clear to me and all I could do was laugh. See what I didn’t think about was as we were getting in the car, I observed two of our younger male cousins, my oldest son, and my brother standing on the porch. One didn’t have on a coat (mind you it was winter), one had on jogging pants, and for whatever strange reason in the middle of winter, his pants legs were pulled up, the other two had on baseball cap type hats turned backwards. So as soon as he got in the car he proceeded to transform into a YO. He has spent so much time around the men in our family and they are all so active with him that he desired to be just like them. He hears them talk to each other and they often address each other as YO. So in his mind if he was a YO too he would fit right in with them! At that point all I could do was thank God that the men in my family are positive young men with bright presents and even brighter futures. The behaviors he picked up from them could have been a lot worse if they had been bad boys doing all sorts of inappropriate things around him. Now that we know what it means, the little monster has slowly turned being a YO into a lifestyle! He has a YO dance, he has YO clothes, YO shoes, and when he falls down and doesn’t cry he is a Big YO!! I am so happy to have such a smart little kid and even more blessed that he picks up the good things from the good people I surround him with. Mommies watch what you say and do around your little ones because even when you don’t think they’re paying attention TRUST ME, they’re listening!! Until next time, thanks for following!!