Daddy, why you say?

Exclamations are a staple of dialog in our house. Upon the discovery of cat vomit, a missed deadline, spilled food or drink or otherwise, Ashley and I will say something like, "Darnit!" or "argh" or let out a heavy sigh clearly intended to express frustration.

Jack has keyed in on the fact that these expressions are tied to discoveries of things we're not happy about, so he always wants to know what caused the excited utterance. Uniformly, he'll come running in asking, "Daddy, why you say 'darnit?'" and I'll explain. It's gotten to the point now that he even tries to mimic guttural sounds that don't include words, and others that include the "off color" ones.

Some prime examples:

"Daddy, why you say '{extremely frustrated, growling sigh}?'"

"Mommy, why you say "{discovery of sixth pile of cat vomit today shushing noise}?"

"Daddy, why you say 'hummanahummana?'"

and my favorite,

"Mommy, why you say '[expletive]?'"

If he had colored feathers and a beak he'd fit right in on a perch at a pet store. A PG-13 pet store, that is.