Candy Spelling: In January, I read a story announcing that the 1,000,000th word in the English language would be announced in April.

I spent the next three months trying to decide what the word should be. I hoped it would be something motherly and affirmative, maybe "nurturemom," or "momknowsall," "momsaregreat" or even "momlogic."

April, May, and the beginning of June all passed, and still no 1,000,000th word. By that time, I was thinking that, if every word had been used up, maybe something like "Candyisright" was a possibility.

But, alas, last week the winner was announced. The 1,000,000th word in the English language is: Web 2.0.

Wait. That's not even a word. It's a word and a space and a number and a decimal point. I headed for my fourth grade textbook. (I keep everything.) No, "word" is defined as "a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning." Well, maybe Web 2.0 did qualify, except it was a word and a number, so how could it be a word? It's a term.

Turns out that Web 2.0 was coined by a media expert in 2004 to describe the next generation of Web services. No wonder my fourth grade book didn't know about it. It could have been worse. The final group of words qualifying for one million included "slumdog," "sexting," "defriend," and, finally and thank-goodness-it-didn't-win, "Octomom."

Candy Spelling, author of "Stories from Candyland," had a 50-year hiatus from writing. In 2007, Candy was asked to start blogging ... and has been writing ever since. Candy added "proud grandmother" of Liam Aaron McDermott, born in 2007, and Stella Doreen, born in 2008, to her list of life's special treasures.