My niece just left. I love her and her enormous blue eyes and her cute way of calling me "Co-wee" instead of "Auntie Cori" and her fat little ankles and her soft purple blanket but Thank God she's gone home! She is two, need I say more? Oh yeah, her brother was here too but he's six and loves my son and thinks he's like the coolest thing ever so Ty follows him around and lovingly gazes at him as he waxes poetic about all things Pokemon and Bakugan and Nintendo. Really, what more does a six year old boy need? But that Julia is a whole 'nother story! She is so busy and so climb-y and so talk-y and so frustrated when I don't understand the talking and don't offer her 300 choices when she's hungry and only give her a choice between two things, neither of which is the 14 slice of banana bread that she wants. So sorry, Ju-ju, but Auntie Cori has only had 5 and she'd like a couple more so you're doing without, sweet thing. She took 45 minutes of singing and rocking and reading and crying (her, not me) and patting and covering and uncovering and petting the kitty and screaming at the kitty (again her, not me) before she fell asleep last night. She woke up just before 3am and was up for just over two hours talking and crying and...you get the idea, before falling asleep again until the ripe ol' hour of 6:15. Do you know that it's light out at 6:15 in June? I didn't know this. I could have lived the rest of my life not knowing that. Morning and I? We're not so much the best of friends and I prefer to only meet her when necessary for work or something enjoyable like a roadtrip. Not for water and Tom and Jerry and banana bread and cereal and yogurt and popcorn and playing with the doggie and OMG, I'v[e already done tis with my own three kids, do I really have to do this again? Well, yes I do if I want to be the cool auntie and the auntie that she remembers always being there and the one that loves to spend time putting lipstick on her and spraying her with perfume and putting shimmer powder on her cheeks and belly (I didn't even question it) and lets her stir the cream cheese frosting and lick the spoon and someday will listen when her friends hurt her feelings and she is nervous about starting junior high and wonders if that one boy from English class will ask her to prom. So I'll read Goodnight Moon 300 more times and remind her again that we don't pull on the kitty's paws and will do my damnedest to clean the Sharpie off the laundry room door because having that kind of relationship with her is worth it.

And I'm proud of myself for knowing that and acting on it.  ¶ 12:19 PM