Grumpy Toes and Chiles

Yesterday we went to the park for a little afternoon fun in the sun with the munchkins. We brought Sprout's bike and kite and a ball for Sprite. Sprout wanted nothing to do with his bike and finally decided to fly his kite with Daddy once Daddy got it high in the sky. Sprite and I kicked the ball around for a while and stopped to pick flowers whenever we saw a patch. Sounds lovely, right? It was, except for the constant whining that ensued. "It's hot, I need a drink, there's a lot of bugs, I want to go home... and a few shrieks from Sprite when ever her brother came near her ball." The hubs and I laughed and said "well, we tried, maybe we should throw in the towel and just take these grumpy toes home!" This comment led to a very interesting conversation.

"Grumpy Toes- what the heck are you talking about?!"

The Hubs shook his head and laughed at this. "Grumpitos, get it?"

I looked at him with a confused look on my face and said "I have no idea what you are talking about."

With a look of complete disbelief, he said "Nevermind."

"No, explain it to me because I am so confused and have no idea what you are talking about."

He went into some explanation about how "ito" is used to mean "little" in Spanish, therefore Grumpitos roughly translates into Little Grumps.

"Oh, I said, now I get it but if you say Grumpitos and you have no reference it sounds like Grumpy Toes!"

We had a good laugh about this and refered to the munchkins as Grumpy Toes for the rest of the night.

This reminded me of some of the other terms/nicknames/expressions that we have made up and use in the family. We have quite a few nicknames for the kids, especially when they are being grumpy.

Grumpy Guts -this is what we called Sprout when he was a baby and was being grumpy.

Grumbelina or Crabby Miss Crabby Patty -these are Sprite's nicknames when she is being grumpy or crabby.

We also often combine Spanish and English words to create our own goofy names as demonstarted above. This stems from my husband's use of the language and frequent deployments to South America. Here are a few of the others:

Chiles/Chilitos (see, there's that -itos again)- we use this to refer to the kids sometimes. Chiles or Little Chiles. It combines children and chiles because our children are spicy/sassy like Chiles. ex. "How were the chiles today?"

Mujer- my husband sometimes refers to me as "woman" (this is done in a joking manner and I do not take offense to it) but if the kids are around he calls me "mujer" which is Spanish for Woman, so Sprout doesn't start calling me "woman."

Jose Willis- this is one of Sprout's nicknames. I think it is a way of making "Whatch you talkin bout Willis?" sound Spanish. I frequently use this infamous phrase from Different Strokes in the perfect Gary Coleman voice when Sprout says something crazy and this was my husband's way of making fun of me and creating a nickname for Sprout at the same time.

Chimichanga Chewibacca- this is a nickname for our dog. He is an extremly hairy mongral and we think he looks like Chewbacca from Star Wars. He has also gained weight over the years so now we think he looks like a hairy burrito. I know this is completely crazy and I can't even believe I am sharing this but these are the things my husband and laugh about in bed at night.

Ok- enough with Spanglish creations here. Please do not take offense to these. We are not making fun of the Spanish language, we simply incorporated this beutiful language into our daily lives when it was a big part of my husband's life and some of the nicknames just stuck.

We do have a few other interesting expressions that have no reference to the Spanish language.

Boy- This is how we often refer to Sprout. ex. "Where's boy?"

Baby- This is also how we refer to Sprite. ex. "What's baby doing?"

I don't even know how these started but it has become a habit. We do it so frequently that when other people hear it they look at us funny. I think they think our children don't have names. You'll be glad to know that we do not use these when talking to directly to the children/chiles/chilitos as in " Boy, come here!" Just when the hubs and I are talking.

Munchkins- You've probably heard me use this one before. I often refer to the chiles as munchkins. This started when we moved to Kansas and visited the Wizard of Oz museum. I started using a lot of Wizard of Oz references when we lived in and moved away from Kansas. This is a term of endearment as I think the Munchkins are magical little creatures! And when we moved to AL, I used to say, "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore."

This last one is not a nickname but something that Sprout came up with that I just love.

Tickle Pet- Sprout loves to have his feet rubbed when he is relaxing before bed. He gets a foot rubbing every night but it is not just any foot rubbing. He is very particular about his foot rubbings and has termed this nightly ritual "Tickle Pet" because it is part tickling and part petting, if you will. He likes me to use my fingernails in a tickly way while petting/rubbing the tops of his feet. ex. "mommy will you tickle pet my feet?" And Mommy is the tickle petting champion by the way. Daddy just can't do it right. Probably because he doen't have fingernails.

Anyway I just think this is so darn cute I can't resist giving the chile/chilito/munckin/jose willis/boy a nice tickle pet before bed! Now whenever Sprout is being a Grumpy Toe I know I can just start tickle petting his toes and all his grumps will disappear!

What are some of your family nicknames or expressions? Please tell me we are not the only ones with crazy nicknames!