This weekend, I went home to Upstate New York to surprise my mother for her birthday on Saturday. I went there on Friday and left on Saturday afternoon….one of my famous under 24 hour trips.
While there, I got to see my niece/god daughter Kianna. I haven’t seen her in months, so it was great to spend some time with her. She is 2 and a half and smarter than she should be. For the first five minutes she sees me she’s shy, then she follows me everywhere I go. On Saturday, my sister was taking her home right before I was leaving. She said “Give uncle ____ a hug and a kiss. He’s going home to Boston today.” She immediately put her head down and said no. She hugged and kissed both my parents, but wouldn’t even look at me.
A few minutes later, after they left, my sister called my parents. In the car, Kianna said “I’m sorry I didn’t give uncle ____ a hug, but I’m sad that he’s leaving.”
She’s 2 and a half.
And now, on the brighter side, I just got the following email from Evan:
so i’m not sure if Hailey does this on purpose, but over the weekend, she started sticking her tounge out, which I am fairly certain you taught her. If it’s not involuntary, you have succeeded in your first endeavor teaching her little stunts like that.
I have taken it upon myself to teach small children to stick their tongues out. I guess I’m not really her “uncle”, but that’s kind of the role I have taken on. And in this case, my idea of an uncle is being the guy to teach the kid bad behavior that the parents will have to deal with. You know, typical uncle things.
When I think of an uncle, that’s what I think of: the guy that buys his nephew a set of drums for Christmas because he knows it’s going to drive the dad nuts. Things that you’d never teach your own kids, but since they’re not yours, it’s the dad’s problem. I know it sounds bad, but I’m only talking about benign things. Is that what you think of when you think of an uncle? What are some other roles that immediately dictate your behavior? Bah, need coffee now. That was like pulling teeth.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Evan // Jun 18, 2007 at 11:04 am
Bah. Between you and my brothers teaching her stunts, I’ve got my hands full. I think it’s funny.
Yesterday, my father said he was going to teach her how to burp loud because I taught my two younger brothers how.
I responded by saying “I’d be happy to teach her that as well.”
That is, if you don’t get to it first Barry.
2 Brooke // Jun 18, 2007 at 11:21 am
haha…how funny. Though I’ve long thought that sticking out tongues is an inborn instinct…when I was two my parents best friends used to babysit me and taught me that when they said, “what’s the only answer?” I should reply “booze!”…they say this on the phone to me to this day, and I always reply accordingly..
3 Barry Freed // Jun 18, 2007 at 11:46 am
Brooke: reminds me of a Homer Simpson Quote: Beer. The cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.
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