I’m not sure how it started, but for as long as I can remember Briggs has requested “launchos” when making meal requests. What is launchos you might ask? Well, it’s nachos for lunch of course. It has to be one of my favorite things he mispronounces – next to ESU (otherwise known as the ASU Sun Devils).
I’m sure when he was just forming words he heard his siblings asking for nachos for lunch and his interpretation became launchos. It stuck with him and it’s became a household name.
But we all know kids only stay cute for so long and before you know it they start pronouncing things correctly. Today was that day.
He asked for nachos – with a clear pronunciation on the N. I repeated, “Launchos?” and he said it again correcting me, “NNNNachos”. He did it – he went and grew up on me and he’ll probably never again utter the phrase launchos – which is unfortunate because I thought it was a great blending of words.
I was telling Hallie when she got home from school that he finally figured it out – she corrected me – Cannon has been working with him to say it correctly. Before you know it, he’ll realize I don’t have super powers. It’s a slippery slope!
Everyone needs Hunter in their life. He is playful and he’s always up for joke and he keeps us laughing. A more recent example…
Hallie wanted to make sure her chocolate bunny didn’t get confused with the five identical chocolate bunnies in the house. So she inscribed a message: “Hallie’s DO NOT EAT!”
It sat on the counter for two days like this. And then we noticed the message had changed. It read, “Hallie’s You Can Eat! If you want”.
At first glance it appeared Hallie was being rather generous with her bunny – and if Hunter had been able to keep a straight face, he wouldn’t have looked as guilty. We left it on the counter until Hallie had a chance to see it, she immediately blamed Hunter…and she was right. Luckily, it sat far enough back on the counter that the younger kids didn’t see it and take advantage of the prompting!
Hunter and Steve were having a conversation Saturday about money. Hunter just finished mowing the lawn at his grandparents house and was feeling good about his new cash. Steve took the opportunity to give a lesson in money and investing and explained how the stock market works. Hunter asked a lot of questions and you could tell his wheels were spinning. What stock could he buy? How long would he have to hold it until it made money? When could he sell it? I didn’t hear anymore about the conversation until this afternoon when I got this text from Hunter’s friend’s mom.
I’m sure these two ten-year-old boys were scheming what they were going to do with all their profit from the stocks they are going to buy. Next lesson is how to invest that money into a business and he could be an entrepreneur!
If I’m being honest – playing games with kids can be downright painful. Bennett is a master at Sequence for Kids, he has a high winning percentage. He’s even good at Sorry and Life. Hedbanz…not so much. We were playing it this afternoon and right out of the gate, he just starts guessing his card. Am I a sandwich? Am I an elephant? Am I a tree? It didn’t matter how many times I tried to explain the concept of the game, he just kept trying to guess his card.
A couple weeks back he was with the babysitter when I got a text from her. They were playing hedbanz and the babysitter had the bacon card. She kept asking questions and couldn’t figure out what her card was. Am I a food? No. Do I have wheels? No. Do I have a tail? No.
After 10 minutes, she was ready to throw in the towel. She gave up and looked at the card. “I asked you if I was a food!” Bennett looked confused. You’re not a food, tree trunks aren’t a food. She was laughing pretty hard – “Tree trunks?!” Bennett gave her a look like, “Duh – can you not see that is a tree trunk?” “It’s bacon. BACON you silly boy! He shrugged his shoulders, “That’s weird.” We’re going to stick with Sequence for kids!
Bennett’s excitement is often contagious and exhausting at the same time. There was quite the buzz around our house today because tomorrow is brunch for lunch. It is hands down the best lunch the cafeteria serves all month and it’s the only day my kids eat hot lunch. Brunch for lunch was my favorite growing up as well.
Bennett started talking about brunch for lunch while he was making his lunch this morning. The first thing he told me when he got off the bus today was that he was getting hot lunch for the first time tomorrow. He walked me through how he’s going to do hot lunch. He’s never done it before but “he’s just going to copy the guy in front of him.” When Steve got home from work, Bennett went on and on about lunch tomorrow. At dinner he talked about it – we were all doing our best to take interest in the conversation while trying to not break out in laughter. And let me tell you – these are not boring conversations. He’s acting things out – he’s making voices – he’s dancing…all signs of his utter excitement.
After dinner we were in the living room playing. “Hey mom…” “Buddy – we’re done talking about lunch tomorrow.” “But…” He trails on about some random question about the oranges they’ll be serving at lunch. And then as he walked to bed, he asked us to remind him that he doesn’t need to make a lunch tomorrow. I’m pretty dang sure he’ll have no troubles remembering. In fact, I won’t be surprised if has trouble sleeping because the anticipation is just too great.
I sure hope this lunch lives up to all the hype and expectation. I hope he doesn’t drop his tray, spilling his food, walking out of the food line. I hope he doesn’t bug his teacher wanting lunch to come too soon. And you better believe I’m going to have the video camera rolling when he gets home so he can give me every single solitary detail of his experience. Tomorrow is going to be a good day. Too bad he doesn’t have a shirt that says, “Brunch for lunch is my jam”.
