What did he say now?

I absolutely love my nephew, not just because he is mine but because he is adorable, funny and a great reminder to me why I don't want to ever want to be a mother.

My sister worked all last weekend and since her husband is on location she had no one to watch the boy, of course I jumped at the opportunity because of all the reasons listed above.

I met my sister at work on Saturday, we typically just switch cars since the boy is usually sleeping. This time was not unlike other times, I got in the car and the boy was asleep. When he woke up he started talking to me about school and everything else going on in his life. There is a little girl at school who I will call "Miss N" since her first name begins with N and I want to protect all parties involved...... apparently Miss N is a little bit of a bully and picks on a lot of the kids in the class. So I asked the boy how school was going and he said "I don't want to talk about 'Miss N' anymore, EVER"

While at my house, we watched several episodes of "Little Bear" I told him as soon as the WVU football game started "Little Bear" was off, he seemed to be okay with that..... until he realized I meant he couldn't watch what he wanted to watch (not that the WVU game was worth watching, they lost to ECU for God Sake) anyway the entire time the game is on he kept pulling out DVD from his bag tell me he wants to watch this one or that one and every time a DVD game out of the bag I heard "Come on Aunt Kelly it is really fun" So I finally responded "So is watching football, no movies now" we then practiced saying "Let's Go Mountaineers" which paid off well when he and his parents when to Champs to watch the Notre Dame game and Rich Rodriguez (coach of Michigan, former coach of WVU) was on TV being the first Michigan coach to lose the first 2 games of the season in forever and the boy started yelling "Let's Go Mountaineers".... of course he had no clue of the humor in that since Rich left WVU for what he thought was a better program and is doing nothing for them!!

Anyway, moving on. At one point I see the boy sitting under my kitchen table so I say to him "BBoy what are you doing?" He comes out from under the table so he can put his hand on his hip and shake his head a little and respond to me "Can't you see I am using my imagination?" Because I wasn't sure how to respond I said to him "No I couldn't thanks for clearing that up for me."

Several times I asked him if he was hungry or wanted anything to eat and he kept telling me no, finally he says to me, again with hands on his hips "Aunt Kelly I need food" so I name all the food we have, trying to find out what he wants and he said to me "Not that food, the food in the closet" I tell him "I don't know what you are tlaking about, I have no food in the closet." I guess that is not the answer he was looking for because he shook his head at me and said "I wish you would stop being so ridiculous" ........ are you kidding me the child is not even 3, seriously where does he come up with this stuff?

Finally we were at my parents on Sunday and my father was serving corn on the cob, I didn't know if the boy was allowed to eat it or not so I said to my father "Does BBoy get any" and before my father could respond BBoy says "only one because of my poopies" I about died, the kid knows about corn poops already, I love it!!!

Music to my Ears.....

My sister "Bboy" and I have a bit of a tradition. Almost every night he calls me to say goodnight. Honestly I think it is the little stinkers way of getting to stay awake for 5 more minutes, I don't care thought I love when he calls! It started with my sister doing all the talking and at the end she would say "Give Aunt Kelly a kiss" and I would hear "Muwah" (not sure how to spell the sound a kiss makes) and I would say "muwah right back at you peanut" and blow a kiss into the phone. Now that he can talk more our bedtime conversations are a little different, I usually say "BBoy what are you doing?" and he tells me "reading a book" or "singing a song" or any number of other things he says (not all of which are 100% clear to me) and of course before we get off the phone I always say "Good night peanut, I love you." The other day he said "I love you too Aunt Kelly" I swear I got tears in my eyes and goose bumps up and down my arms. It was so cute hearing his little voice say "I love you" as I sit here typing this I am looking at a blurry screen because the tears have surfaced again. It is hard for me to believe the big boy in this picture wearing "Grandpa's" glasses is the same little boy who entered the world and my heart almost 3 years ago. Damn I love that little brat!!!

We did It!!

Never in my life did I think I would be blogging about potty training; however, I am and for some strange reason I am proud to be doing it. The boy has been very stubborn when it comes to potty training, he has wanted nothing to do with it- nothing at all! My sister has tried everything and he just isn't interested. The frustrating thing he is knows when he goes so he will tell you "pee pee in here, change me" or worse he will take his #2 filled diaper off and tell you "poop in here" many times he takes it off before he has even finished going (I know that is way too much information, sorry)

Tonight Kimberly asked him if he wanted to go to the bathroom and of course he said "no" she put the toilet seat insert on the toilet just in case, he got on, squatted on the seat so he could see what was going on in the bowl and a few drops came out. My sister made such a big deal about it, he got all excited too. He told Elmo (who is on his potty seat) "Good job, I am proud of you, you did it!! (not bad for a kid who is 2 and a half) Of course my sister had to call me at work to tell me the good news, she called back later on to tell me he went 2 more times. Seems like our last diaper change is in our not so distant future (thank God changing diapers is my least favorite part of being an Aunt!!)

Boys and their Toys

I am starting this post around 11:45, I am going to make sure it takes me a while to finish so I can post it on Tuesday and keep my streak going- that would be 2 posts in 2 days for those of you who are counting.....

As many of my readers know (I say that as if I have millions of readers, if I am lucky, I have 5) my nephew is the love of my life. Not only is he adorable, funny and a great cuddle partner, he isn't mine so I can give him back to his mother when he starts acting up. Anyway, since he is the love of my life I tend to spoil him a little. Not to the point that he is a brat because I refuse to allow him to become a brat, I do however, enjoy seeing him smile when he gets something new and I love watching him play with the stuff I get him. Mostly books because he loves to "read" and now that he knows his letters it is as if he is reading since he looks at the page and tells you every letter on it.

Anyway I am digress..... he is and has been a big Sesame Street fan, it started with Elmo but it has slowly progressed to all of the Sesame characters. He says "Cookie" the same way Cookie Monster does and he loves Zoe almost as much as Elmo does. He is starting to really like Bert and Ernie, he even knows that Burt loves to take a bath and has rubber duckie. Big Bird is quickly becoming a favorite of his too. As a result of his love of Sesame Street, he walks around with several stuffed animals at one time, always Cookie and Elmo and sometimes Big Bird and Zoe too. He isn't allowed to take them out of the house because my sister knows the drama that would ensue if he lost one of the beloved.

The other night my sister was out with some people and someone asked her "Does BBoy still play with dolls?"

My sister was a little taken aback and didn't know how to respond so she said "What are you talking about, he doesn't play with dolls"

Still not sure what they are referring to, my sister looks a little puzzled, someone else pipes in with "are you talking about Elmo and Cookie? I hardly consider them dolls"

They respond with "my husband would have a fit if I ever let my son play with that stuff."

I wonder does playing with stuffed animals make a 2 year old boy less masculine? He also plays with cars, trucks and blocks, not that it matters. He is a child who loves clothes and getting dressed, always has to pick out his own outfits, loves his shoes (say it sues) his croc boots were his favorite Christmas present, he put them on immediately and walked around the house in them all day long..... does that make him less of a man? Does it matter that he wears crocs? Should we not let him watch Sesame Street and make him watch Transformers? Does it really matter what he plays with? Should we be excited that he is intelligent enough to make the connection between the character he sees on TV and reads about in books? Isn't it great that he is 2 and knows the difference between his crocs and his sneakers? He loves to read and would rather do that than watch TV, he loves broccoli and would rather have a carrot than a cookie. Does that make him a freak of nature? I guess the morale of my story is who cares what children are playing with, "boy" or "girl" as long as it is envoking creatativity and the use of their imagination.

Trick or Treat

BBoy had a great halloween, he looked adorable in his monkey costume. He loved being outside and running around. It was hard to keep up with him, I wish I could have sat in the stroller and let him push me around.....



















We still need to work on the whole concept of trick or treating, he didn't understand that he was supposed to take candy and leave- he watned to be invited inside and when he wasn't he just let himself in. Thank God we only go to the houses of people really know. He loves candy so much (not sure how he knows that, he never eats sweets) that he couldn't wait to get home to eat some of his treats, heck he couldn't even wait for us to open them for him.










Last year he was Nemo and looked great, this year he was a monkey and again looked adorable. I wonder what next year will bring- can't wait, by then he will be old enough to really enjoy it and have tons of fun- of course as his aunt and God mother I will be right there next to him capturing all of it with my camera.