Spanglish

After they pee on the potty, brush their teeth, and get pj's on (which, for Jacob, and lately Alex too, means stripping down to underwear only), they each choose one book for Jeff to read to them before bed (and before it's time to ask for sips of water and give goodnight hugs).
One night, Jacob selected Guess How Much I Love You (one of our favorites), following up with the random request of, "Daddy, read it in Spanish!"

That was a new one.

And both Jacob & Alex began giggling (even though I'm fairly certain Alex had no idea what Spanish meant), as if they already knew just how bad this would be.

Up for the challenge (and the humor), Jeff gave it a go.

We were then treated to a brilliant reading of the book in what some might call Spanglish. Or a really bad impression of Antonio Banderas. Or what I would call 5% actual Spanish, 5% incorrect Spanish, and 90% English spoken in a Spanish accent (that sometimes sounded suspiciously more Italian, complete with exaggerated hand gestures).
But you can't fault Jeff. He took German in high school- I took Spanish. (Well, you can fault him for the bad accent. I mean, it was bad. Sometimes there even seemed to be a hint of Chinese thrown in there.) He gave it his best shot, though, and the boys LOVED it. Both were laughing hysterically- especially Jacob. And I loved laughing at Señor Jeff, in between the moments I had to correct his translations.

"No, Jeff, Little Nutbrown Hare is not 'Polka Nutbrown Hare'...I think you mean, 'poco'."

Or

"Big Nutbrown Hare is not 'Mucho Nutbrown Hare'. Think Starbucks- it's 'Grande Nutbrown Hare'."

We worked as a team to get through the book, and inadvertently added another part to the bedtime routine. Every time the characters in the book said, "I love you", Jeff would replace it with "Té amo" (thanks to me for the translation). And at the end of the sweet book, "Poco" Nutbrown Hare tells his daddy, "Grande" Nutbrown Hare, "I love you all the way to the moon." In Spanglish, this translates to, "Té amo all the way to the luna."

Since then, as the boys are saying their goodnights to us, the "I love you's" have changed. Now, Jeff and I stand at their bedroom door, with each of us saying "Té amo" to each other like bilingual impostors.

And Alex, who could not be more in love with his little brother, constantly approaching him to bestow a kiss or gentle head rub, now has a favorite verbal expression of his devotion when it comes to Will. Multiple times a day now, he'll tell us:

"I love Baby Will so much on the luna."

Yea, he's saying "on" (instead of "to") the moon. But we know what he means, thanks to our stellar Spanish vocabulary.

And he pronounces luna, "nuna", making his declaration even more adorable and endearing.

It goes without saying that we think our chico es muy, muy sweet.