Michael in Nashville

Before I got the dreaded flu, I had the pleasure of spending some quality time hanging out with my niece and nephew and their dad last weekend. I happened to be driving past where they were getting out of the car to enjoy some pizza and joined them for lunch last Saturday and then we had dinner last Saturday. In between, I helped run an errand that involved needing two drivers.

Because I’m the coolest uncle in the entire known universe, my nephew decided he wanted to ride back to his house with me.

On the way to pick up their car, we’d seen the after affects of a car accident, including the police on the scene with their flashing lights. As we drove back, my nephew wanted to make sure that we went “really fast” so we’d beat Daddy and his sister, but not so fast that we’d “go to jail.” I told him that you didn’t usually go to jail for going too fast, but you got a ticket.

“What’s a ticket?” he asked.

“It’s a piece of a paper that says you broke the law and makes you pay a lot of money,” I told him.

“Oh, that sounds bad,” he said. “Is that worse than jail?”

As the conversation continued, he went on to tell me that we was “really cool.” I asked him how he knew this.

“Becuase all the girls like me,” he replied matter-of-factly.

Well, it’s good that you know that. And from now, I’m keeping him away from those Happy Days re-runs.

I can’t believe that my favorite niece is turning six years old today. It seems like just yesterday that my sister was calling me to tell me she was on her way and I was heading to the hospital so I could wait with them for her arrival.

The moment I stepped into the hospital room and saw my sister and brother-in-law, holding this tiny little person is one that I’ll never forget.

And now, she’s turning six.

In the past year, we’ve gone from my reading book to her at bedtime, to her wanting to read to me–and her being able to do it. I had a lot of fun this year, travelling down memory lane as I picked out a couple of “big girl” books as party of her birthday present. (She loves the Junie B. Jones books, but buying one for her is liking buying Doctor Who stuff for me–it’s hard to know which ones she has). So, I bought her two of my favorites that I read when I was her age–the first two Ramona books. I hope she enjoys them as much as I did. I read them a lot growing up, the point that I think I can probably still recite some of my favorite portions of the books.

Last night, she was very concerned about what would happen if there was a snow day today and her taking cupcakes to school. Luckily, the promise that they could keep until Thursday put this worry to rest.

Happy b’day to my favorite niece. I know you don’t read this blog and I know I’ve told you happy b’day at least four times in the past couple of days, but I never get tired of celebrating you being a special part of my family.

My niece and nephew went to the circus last weekend. They were telling me about the circus last night and all the animals and acts they saw under the big top.

I asked my nephew is he was going to be in the circus someday as a lion tamer or some other cool circus-related job. He shook his head.

“So what do you want to be when you grow up?” I asked him.

“I am going to be a superhero,” he replied.

“Which one do you want to be?” I asked.

“One of three,” he said, holding up three fingers. “But I think I’m going to be Superman.”

Now, as a Spider-Man fan, I have to admit to being a little disappointed in myself for not sharing enough of my love of the world’s greatest superhero, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. I consider this a challenge to myself to help him understand just why Spidey is much cooler than any other superhero around.

Of course, I also wondered if Superman retired and how one went about applying for the job. And I guess that someday when he does get the job as Superman, I will be in trouble for this blog post. I fully expect to be taken hostage by Lex Luthor as part of some evil genius plot to defeat Superman. But I’m not worried…with my nephew as Superman, there is no way Lex will succeed.

While many of my fellow middle Tennessee bloggers were at the big blogger party thrown by WKRN last night, enjoying free drinks, some big news and (I’m sure) intelligent, witty conversation, I was babysitting my neice and nephew. And a good time was had by all for the first few hours. Uncle Michael showed up with nuggets from Wendy’s (the filet mignon of chicken nuggets) which were a big hit, then allowed the duo to have fruit snacks. Then several hours were taken up playing with GeoTrax, which don’t tell anyone but Uncle Michael loves playing with (probably even more than the neice and nephew do).

Things were going well until it got to be close to bedtime. Bedtime went fairly well for the first few minutes. Davis went to bed with his usual protest of “I’m not tired” as he pulls the blankets up over him, snuggles his head onto the pillow and cuddles up with his stuffed animal he sleeps with. Then it came time to get Gracelyn into bed, which depending on her mood can be a smooth process or complete battle of wills. And silly me, I was enjoying that, for the most part, it was a smooth process last night….until Mommy called to see how bedtime was going.

And it was all downhill from there. Gracelyn launched into a full-blown meltdown tantrum and Davis woke up, convinced he’d heard fireworks. Seem the revellers from the 4th of July had bought so many they couldn’t just shoot them all off on the fourth and had extended this fun to the 5th and 6th…which all I can say is–you are utter, utter bastards. If you can’t shoot off your damn fireworks all on the fourth, then you’ve bought too damn many. The usually calm and take life as it comes Davis had a complete crisis–full-blown panic for which nothing would calm him down except having Uncle Michael there. So, I had to take pick him and hold him until he fell asleep, which only annoyed Gracelyn that much more since (and those of you with siblings will know this) Davis was getting attention and she wasn’t! Heaven forbid!

She finally gave-up on having her fit after about twenty or so minutes and Davis eventually fell asleep enough so I could put him back in his bed. Then Uncle Michael went and sat, just enjoying the sounds of silence. I am thinking today that Simon and Garfunkle wrote that song right after having two kids under the age of five have a total meltdown….

So, I’m sorry I missed the party. From looking at what other bloggers are saying, it sounds like I missed a great time. But you know, I’m not sure I’d trade the nugget-time and playing with GeoTrax with my neice and nephew for it. If only I could clone myself and be in two places at once…of course, then I’d have to feed the clone, which may not be especially cost effective in the long run.

UPDATE:  So, Davis’s first words this morning were “Where’s Uncle Michael?”  Best…nephew…EVER!