My niece and nephew were up visiting from Texas for the last month or so. They just went home on Friday and I miss them already. I'm going to write about them a bit now to help me to keep the memories close. If you aren't feeling that, think it sounds deadly boring, please feel free to take yourself elsewhere.
We're going to talk about my nephew here, Friends -- more specifically the things that he says. He's 9, and I find some of the things he says to be hilarious. Sometimes it's because he really wasn't paying attention and repeats what he thought he heard, sometimes he can't remember the word he really wants to use so he comes up with a close approximation. He's also just a really funny little dude. I started making notes of some of them. I think they're priceless, but I'm totally biased on this.
Without further ado, I present the sayings of my nephew, Austin. I call them:
Austin-isms
Let's start with a couple of classics that my brother relayed to me.
1) "Ham on tuna" -- Hannah Montana. They had been discussing the show, and clearly Austin wasn't really listening very carefully. When he was really little he had to watch it a lot because my niece was obsessed with the show, and he used to call it "Best Show" because of the theme song.
2) "Can of fish" -- again, his listening ears weren't working so well. Apparently my sister-in-law was trying to talk and he kept interrupting, and she said, "Can I finish?"
3) Another older example I was present for: he couldn't remember the word 'elves'. He called them "Santa's midget clowns", and claimed that they hated children.
On to the gems from this summer. Some are pretty clear, and others might necessitate a bit of explanation.
4) "Like a rhino in a Chinese store" -- he meant bull in a china shop, but didn't quite get it right.
5) On dealing with his sister: "I'm not allowed to touch her. At all."
6) On briefly seeing a display for something called Spikeball in a sporting goods store: "It's just what drunk people play."
7) To his grandmother, "You're wasting my words." This could go a couple different ways. Originally he meant that she was twisting his words. He also used to complain that, "Grandma is always asking me a million questions about everything," and she was making him waste his words answering her.
8) When I asked him what he had been doing since his fingernails were caked with dirt: "That's not dirt. That's memories."
9) "Hands are nature's silverware. Teeth are nature's knives."
10) To his sister, "You have all the length, I have all the muscle." (She is older and much taller than he is.)
11) On debating with me whether 'bogosity' was a word: "Bogosity -- search it up, Aunt Tammy! It's totally in Urban Dictionary!"
12) He came to visit me at the library where I work, and took it upon himself to put all of the puzzles in the children's area back together correctly. He also morphed into a 90 year old man. "These darn kids are irresponsible, losing all the pieces. They shouldn't be allowed to have puzzles!"
13) "Little tickets to heaven" -- that's what he called the goose poop that was all over sidewalk when we were out for a walk.
14) Showing me his profile picture on his Instagram account: "That's a cupcake. I made it. His name was Diabetes."
15) "Is this going to be an Austinism? Don't write that down. I can do much better than that!"
16) We were in the car. He was really tired, watching YouTube videos on his tablet and trying to listen to the conversation Lili (my niece) and I were having about Pretty Little Liars. "Who what did?" and then whispered under his breath, "Oh, God."
17) Commenting on his sister: "She's now turning into a real giraffe! Long neck, long legs..."
18) He went to baseball camp at Marist College, and he would come home starving and totally exhausted. He would never cop to being tired and would fight it every night. It led to him saying things at dinner like, "I can't talk because there's a mouth in my food."
19) And when tired he kind of scrambles his words a bit: "Is the dar clocked?" Is the car locked. Totally wouldn't admit he said it, either. Cause he wasn't tired, damn it!
20) My brother was up to visit for the week before taking his kidlets back home to Texas. My mother had made a pasta salad with garbanzo beans in it. Austin was sitting closest to the salad, and was dishing some out to my brother when he asked. "Do you want the garzombie beans?" I like his word better, honestly.
21) "Everybody likes ice cream. Except for people who are lactose intolerant." Then he whispered, "They have explosive poo later."
22) He came home from baseball camp and announced to his sister and I, " I have swamp butt." I don't know what it is, and I don't think I want to know. I told him to make sure he told his Dad, since he was here. Aunt Tammy doesn't handle Swamp Butt. New rule.
23) This happened on Thursday night. I worked late and went over to my parents' house after to visit everyone. My brother had already taken Austin up to bed to start the process of trying to get him to sleep. I went up to the bedroom to see him before he went to sleep.
Austin: Hi Tomato-mobiler! *cracks up laughing*
Me: Hi there, Giggles.
Austin: Get it? Cause Dad calls you Tomato and he sent your birthday present to Tomato and they delivered it! And your car is red-- like a tomato! The Tomato mobile. You're a tomato-mobiler!" He was giddy he was so tired, just cracking himself up.
Me: Whatever you say, Swamp Butt.
His birthday is next week. I hope he finds it just as hilarious when I address his present to Swamp Butt. He doesn't think they will deliver it. They totally will. I send flowers to my niece every year for her birthday. Back in the day I used to address them to her self-proclaimed moniker of Princess Flapjack Electroboom. They always got delivered. Swamp Butt is in for a surprise!
Just to be fair and round this out, I'll share a bit of ridiculousness that my brother, my niece and I got up to. It's entirely my fault. I take full blame.
My brother, Lili, and I were all watching television at my parents' house. (The kidlets stay there when they come to visit, as neither would be up and motivated to go when I have to leave for work in the morning. My brother crashes at my house when he is in town.) There must not have been a Yankees game on at the time as I had the remote. I was flipping through the channel guide, trying to find something appropriate for all viewers, and I noticed a show was on Animal Planet called "Finding Bigfoot".
So I chose it.
I thought it was going to be something educational....like discussing the history of the Bigfoot legend. Nope. They were in Iowa, I think, and were going to go out and look for Bigfoot where all of these sightings had purportedly taken place. I assumed they were going to debunk them -- examine the area and talk about what native animals (like bears) people might have been mistaking for Bigfoot.
I was so wrong.
They were legitimately out there trying to find Bigfoot. They had night vision cameras, thermal readers -- you name it. Still cool. It was interesting to see what they could find.
The thing that did us in was the terms they were using. Did the area look "Squatchy?" They were going out "squatching". I really thought I heard them wrong the first time, but they kept saying similar things.
So, fast forward to the last day of their visit. Lili had told my brother that she wanted the two of them to "go on an adventure" while Austin was at camp and I was at work. We came up with a bunch of things they could do as an adventure, depending on what time Lili managed to drag herself from bed after being up chatting with her friends on her phone half the night.
They ended up going to Minnewaska State Park to go hiking. It's really beautiful. I go there quite often to get away from it all.
My brother takes some pictures while they are there, but he tags them with things like "squatchwatch2017". When they were taking a rest, it was a "squatchsquat".
I might have replied and asked if the area looked "squatchy".
But the best of them was definitely when he said, "Going to find them where they live. Catch them in their sas-hole." I found that highly amusing. I don't really care if that makes me seem incredibly immature.
My point, Friends, is that Austin comes by his crazy sayings naturally. We all do it. I just happen to find my little dude to be super funny. Like I said -- I'm very biased.
I hope you found some of this to be at least mildly amusing.
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