On Wednesdays, I pick my nephew, Cooper up from school. I’ve intentionally arranged my schedule to be able to do that. It helps my sister out (let the sleeping kids sleep!), but it’s also fun to spend time with him one-on-one. It’s time that an aunt doesn’t normally get with her nephew.
My nephew is the oldest of 3, so, to me, he looks like a big boy compared to his siblings. He’s 6 years old, which is a big difference from my 6 month old. But when he and the other Kindergartners spill out of the school, he looks so small compared to the 5th graders at the school. He just looks itty bitty compared to them! Especially since some of those 5th graders are lugging big cellos home with them, have a backpack full of stuff and are almost as tall as the moms who are picking them up. Compare that to Cooper, who has a backpack that really only needs to hold a few pieces of paper and still reaches out to hold my hand as we cross the street. He can look small.
In the car ride to his house, I get to hear about his day. I find out:
- Whose birthday it was that day and what kind of treats they had
- What he wants to be for Halloween
- What he thinks Phinehas should be for Halloween
- What his birthday party will be like when he turns 8 (keep in mind that he just turned 6)
- How his parents are probably gonna have another baby in 5 years. But it might be 10 years. Or it could be 6, 7 or 8 years. Maybe. And that baby will be a boy so that there are 3 boys in his family and 3 girls.
- That he thinks it is funny when I show him the middle school that his mom and I went to. (Maybe he thinks it was so long ago that the building shouldn’t exist anymore?)
- That baby Landon (his new cousin) is pretty cute and kind of looks like Phinehas, but kind of doesn’t.
- That Jimmy John’s is his favorite restaurant, even though he’s never eaten there. (Another child in his class had a sandwich from there).
- He needs more sticks for the fire pit in his backyard, so maybe me and his mom could have another contest to collect sticks like we did for toilet paper. He needs 100 sticks, maybe. But maybe only 69.
Part of me looks forward to when Phinehas can talk with me like that, but really, it’s just a special time for me that I really enjoy. He’s a special kid and I’m one blessed aunt!
OMG! Too funny. Caught your recent post on the Bump and was attracted to the title “No Regrets Living.” Love this one about Cooper – sounds like the kid has vision! Thanks Jayme. Oh, also thanks for the link to the post about raising sons to respect daughters! Our little boy is 4 months – too soon? Nah.
Oh my gosh this had me laughing out loud the other day and I forgot to ever tell you. I liked the comment about Landon “kind of” looking like Finn (of course!) but my favorite is that Jimmy Johns is his favorite restaurant. Hilarious!!