"damn horse"

Thursday morning, shortly after I dropped Asher off at Mother's Day Out...I got "the call". You know the one. Your kid has done this. Or..your kid has said that.
They were having a pet show at school, and instructed to bring a stuffed animal. Asher chose his big horse. (Yea, cause that was easy to drag through the wet parking lot, along with backpack and lunchbox)
When I saw the call coming through, my first thought..oh nuts, he's sick. Then, of course my head went to swine flu. Even though I'd just seen him 30 mins before. It's just the way I'm wired. Always thinking the worse.
The director, who also happens to be a good friend of mine (thank God) says.."what's Asher's horse's name?". I told her I had no clue. Brownie?? Bob? Fluffy turtle bottom??
She says "it's Damn". Say what?? She repeats.."his horse's name is Damn". I tell her there's no WAY that's what he's saying. Reminded her of the slight speech impediment my 5 yr old has. And inform her that I'm fully prepared to use that excuse through high school, if I can :)
She tells me when he was asked to tell everyone his horse's name, he said "damn". They asked again..same response. His teacher and Rhonda (director) both trying not to laugh looked at each other making sure they were hearing the same thing. The other kids started to reassure them saying "he said DAMN". So, it was dropped.
Rhonda told Ms. Tammy that she just assumed I wasn't so thrilled to have to be taking the big, ol' horse to school. And yelled "come on Asher, get that damn horse in the car" LOL.
When I got there, I pulled him to the side and asked what his horse's.
"Damn". I asked again, and he looked kind of embarassed...said, "daaamn" really slow. I asked if he knew it was a bad word, then repeated it back to him. I get "not DAMN...DAMN". Um, ok. I said..spell it, lol. Course, he couldn't..but it was worth a shot, right?
Then he said like the "door". Ahh...door jam??? His name is JAM????? Nope.
He said "like the door. The one with the creme puffs". Then it hits me. "Sam's Club??". The store, NOT door..where we eat our way through the samples on the weekends. I get a big "YES!", out of the boy. "His name is Sam??". He grins and nods. "Um, like your last name??". He thinks about it, smiles then says.."hmm, yea", LOL. Who knew the kid couldn't even say his last name???
I assured him that we'd work on that before kindy in the fall.