What's the Word?; or Word to Your Mother (thanks, Heather of the EO)

I've mentioned more than once about Aaron's lack of urgency in the language development department (and previously in the starting to walk, and stopping nursing departments, and currently in the feeding himself, and liking potatoes and fruits and vegetables in general department)  I don't think I have mentioned how at his age (21 months) Evie was speaking in complete (and darling) sentences, so he's not taking after her.

Now, I have no idea how I fared at language development as a tiny girl, but I think Aaron might get his vocabulary problems from me.  Me as I am now.  

I don't think I have a teeny tiny vocabulary.  I know lots of words.   My mother has a great vocabulary (she's a real smarty) and I usually know the definitions of the words she uses.  I rarely read words I don't know (maybe this is more a reflection of the kinds of books I read).  I score okay on Reader's Digest Word Power tests (could be better, though).

I am able to formulate sentences.  Complete ones, even.  I don't think "Complete ones, even." is a complete sentence, but I didn't say I always DO form them that way. I know how to misuse scores of legitimate words and I know how to correctly utilize a plethora of words that don't exist. For example, I use the word "ones" all the time, and my dictionary informs me that the lone definition of that word is "Once".  Please, those of you with a better vocabulary than mine, be advised that I NEVER mean "once" when I say "ones".*  

Normally I don't give a care (:P) about such things.  We are all aware that I do what I want around here.  I ignore spell checker for the most part since I wrote  that post about how rude it is.  So I am definitely no sort of word snob, and probably couldn't be if I tried, but I would really appreciate it if I could at least use the words I know.

In everyday writing this isn't too much of a problem.  It's when I'm writing something other than just what I'm thinking that it gets annoying.  I rarely struggle with it on my blog because I'm not out to paint a perfect picture, or win a literary prize; but once I get writing something that stretches me a little, I draw blanks.  Really. Even fairly basic adjectives elude me.  I feel as though I'm struggling with a math problem that I remember learning how to solve, but I am utterly helpless to make it appear again in my brain.  Sometimes it's, "Oh!  I know there's a perfect word for this!" and sometimes it's, "I have no idea on Earth how to say that very basic thing."

There's a new game going on over at Bloggers Annex (isn't that supposed to have an apostrophe, and if not, why not?  Please someone enlighten me!!) wherein you create a story idea, a few characters and a conflict.  Then your ideas are switched with someone else's and you write their story and they write yours.  This is a really fun idea, but when you're dealing with people who are talented (and in some cases published!) writers it's a little intimidating.  Then if you have a dysfunctional vocabulary in exactly those kinds of writing situations, it's even worse.  So I haven't signed up (also partly because I haven't written a story since grade school almost, and I don't really know how to come up with the makings for one for someone else to use).

I realize that to retain vocabulary you have to use the words.  I suppose that's my problem, but I'm not really sure how to solve it.  

But I'm open for ideas.

* I mentioned this thing about "ones" to Greg and he jumped right on it, "The dictionary doesn't list plural words, silly!"  OH, duh.   I'm leaving this in my post anyway because I love scattering evidence of my brainlessness here and there for all y'all. (My wariness of the word ones comes from someone I knew who insisted there was no such word, or it was improper.  I'm so glad that person was wrong!  I NEED that word.)