A "stupid" Problem

Malia has learned the word "stupid" either at French school, or daycare or somewhere and in her little mouth, it is the ugliest, harshest sounding adjective, ever.

At first she was using it openly, and in context- like if I, or the dogs, or her Ti-Tia did something incorrectly, or that she didn't like, each was labelled stupid. The word was discussed, and there were promises to never call anything/anyone that again.
Well, the word moved to under the breath utterance.
Time outs were enstated.

The word moved to random barely audible whisperings-  seriously, just out of the blue, isolated, but no matter how quiet, the word was there and ugly, UGLY, UGLY in that sweet little mouth.

Tonight we were in bed, reading her second story. She had been warned, given time outs etc about 4 times today for it. She had sworn never, ever to say it again. Then, quite without provocation, or warning, out it popped. I got up, story only 3/4's read and came in here.  She began to cry.  Maybe it wasn't the way to handle it, maybe I am giving too much attention to the word, but it makes me 3 shades of crazy when I hear it, and now that she is doing it to "test"-  worse.

Anyway, half-way through that last sentence, she called out, "Please, Mama, I'm sorry. I am really sorry.", so I went in, thanked her for apologizing, and explained, again, that it is not a word that is nice. I told her that others may say it, kids, their parents, maybe even her teachers, but she is not to say it.  She said she understood, asked for an apology for hurting her feelings (to which I responded, "I am sorry I had to walk away and that hurt you, honey", a hug and a song-  a Portuguese Alleluia, of all things- another hug and kiss and now I can hear her lying there, making her "kissy" Care Bear smooch the air.  In a little while, she will be asleep.

This may not be the end of the word "stupid". If it happens again, I guess I will try the ignore it method which has definitely worked with other things (like forced burps after taking a drink of anything- soooo lady like :) and hope she doesn't move on to other words that feel like a needle in mom's eye too soon!