Vocabulary

For those of you who don't see James on a regular basis, this is what he would do if he saw you. He would lean forward as far as he possibly could, stick his arms straight out in front of him and slightly upwards with all of his fingers sticking straight out. He would incessantly say, "hi!" until you got right up next to him, then he would cock his head over and look at you with a huge slightly-upside-down-toothy-grin. Then he would spend the rest of your time together showing off his strength and his fearlessness. He would say yummy, nuh-nuh-nuh!, yah, tat (cat), and dase (James).

If Joel were greeting you, he would say "HEY" in his biggest, deepest big-boy voice. Then he would ask you if you if you would like to come see or do whatever it is that he's been planning to do with you for the past days, months, years since he's seen you. Joel's is a land of make-believe of food and drink, and punching and fighting. He's as likely to ask you if you want some coconut water (Miss Rumphius reference) or a peppermint candy (Ox-Cart Man reference) as he is to ask you if you like Bob the Builder or would like to wrestle with him.

But whichever of the children are talking to you, you are in for quite a bit of expression in the eyebrows and handmotions to go with the conversation.