I picked up my nephew on the way home from work yesterday so his parents could go out for their anniversary. Happy Anniversary Sister and Java! M pulled his cowboy boots on the wrong feet and walked awkwardly with me to the car. I love that he's excited to be going to my house. He handed me his cowboy gun and Spider Man bubbles so we could buckle him in.
Being the awesome aunt that I am, I have a Veggie Tales CD in my car for days such as this. As I sang along with Madam Blueberry I thought for sure I was scoring cool points with the two year old in my backseat. I looked in the rear view mirror expecting to see my nephew smiling at me, as excited about singing broccoli as I was. He was asleep and unimpressed that I was droppin' the beat. Oh well. I pulled into the driveway, record scratchin', bass pumpin', "...scuba, scuba, scuby duby duba, here we go scuba. Come on..." That's just how I roll.
M fussed as I laid him on the couch. He crawled back into my arms and back to sleep. He filled my lap and my heart, all sweaty, glasses askew. I kissed his forehead. It won't be long and he will be off having big boy adventures and he won't have time or tolerance for "Tia Wivia's" lap or kisses. I decided to enjoy having him there, because, BEING PRESENT. I just sat. ...Until my legs fell asleep. Then I carefully laid him on the floor AND managed to slide his boots off and remove his glasses. If you only knew what an accomplishment this is. The boy loves his boots.
When he awoke later, he sleepily climbed back into my lap, drifting lazily in and out. Feeling slightly and by that I mean barely *minuscule space between thumb and finger* guilty that such a late nap will mean a late night for my sister (call it payback for many long nights when she was M's age), I finally lured him fully awake with the promise of watching Spider Man after dinner.
We negotiated about important things like which bowl he was going to eat out of. We're talking national security here, people. We read about red and blue fish and silly things like 7 hump zumps, or wumps ... or whatever. We watched Spider Man and then hung out in the hammock on the back patio.
By now it was dark and "Uncle Thcott" had turned on the sprinkler to water the weeds, I mean, grass. This fascinated M. He watched as the sprinkler spit-fired water out into the black. The gears in his head were turning. Suddenly he was on his knees behind the sprinkler with his chubby fingers wrapped around the nozzle. He pointed it out into the yard, aiming at imaginary bad guys. At one point he looked back at me and said, "I'm shooting the dark". It was all great until he had accidentally released the lock that kept the sprinkler from spinning full circle. It made a full rotation, soaking the patio, spraying M's face and my pants. We screamed and ran inside. Uncle Thcott rescued the patio while M and I dried off.
After we threw his wet clothes into the dryer, M settled in to watch Toy Story. We sat there, just the two of us - M in his boxers; me with my throw blanket and laptop. We had a great time. Oh, and sorry about the long night, Sister. Bwahaha!
