When we last left off, poor Licorice was trying to adjust to being used as a chew toy by Zoey. Truly, the dogs had very nearly reached an amicable understanding—and here by “amicable” we mean that Zoey learned to knock it off whenever Licorice snarled at her—so of course we packed everything up and moved on to the in-laws. Zoey is now a distant memory, so far as Licorice is concerned. (She’s in for a rude awakening next week when we head back to my parents’ house. Ha!)
The good news is that here at Nearly Nickless’ house there is no exuberant puppy trying to eat Licorice’s head. The bad news is that my nephews are MIGHTILY DISPLEASED that we showed up without our kids.
Specifically, they would like Monkey here RIGHT NOW PLEASE. (Sorry, Chickie.) We are not sure whether to look forward to this or be very afraid.
I’m embarrassed to say that despite phone calls and Skype in-between, the last time we were HERE with my nephews was three years ago. And a lot can happen in three years.
Three years ago, there was this from HM, my younger nephew. He was still a preschooler, with all of the speech impediments therein. Captain Nephew, his older brother, was just six, and largely unwilling to talk to us at all, though he ran and played with Monkey readily.
We got in late last night, and this morning I poked my head into the boys’ room. HM was startled to see me, but probably not as startled as I was to see him. At 7, he’s now almost as big as Monkey. His face has changed, lost the baby roundness and lengthened to match his newly elongated legs. He chatted with me happily, and all his consonants work, now, which made me a little bit sad.
Captain Nephew is actually bigger than Monkey, I think, though I won’t know for sure until the kids get here and I can compare, side-by-side. He was delighted to see us until he realized that we hadn’t hid the children somewhere.
“But… I want to play Bakugan with Monkey. Why isn’t he here, too?” We explained that he was with his dad, which was confusing, because of course there is a small part of the nephews convinced that Otto is the kids’ dad, even though they know he isn’t. Everything was fine for about five minutes, and then Captain Nephew asked when, exactly, Monkey would be here.
After a day of activity, the boys asked again when Monkey would be here. I suspect it’s going to be a long day and a half.
I am looking forward to seeing the Christmas chaos, though, once we can get all three boys here together, and Chickadee can both complain that they’re excluding her AND that she doesn’t want to play with them, anyway. Yay! I will make Otto take lots of pictures, because these boys are growing too fast, and now that I think of it, on that last trip, Chickadee was still in elementary school.
Hopefully on Christmas the excitement of getting to play with Monkey will keep the nephews from asking what those THINGS on Chickadee’s chest are. Though that could be entertaining, too.
Have a wonderful, chaotic time!
I hope they get an answer, because I am curious, too.
-otto
Ha! Cousins.
My Aspie’s current obsession is Pokemon and woe betide the person who doesn’t wish to hear all there is to know about Pokemon. Being a smart sort of fellow, he asked for exactly one gift for Christmas, and he asked for it from everyone who would listen. He blithely announced to me last week that he really just wanted to open Pokemon Black/White Christmas morning and wasn’t really very excited about getting anything else. To him, I suppose, this is reasonable. He only wanted the one thing, after all. Ah, teaching him manners is so much FUN! Later he announced that, really, it was unreasonable to make him wait to open said DS game until Christmas since it was all he wanted or cared about. Being the mean mom that I am. I put that DS game in a different shaped box labeled with his name and put that box inside a bigger box and made it out to myself. I will open that gift last, I believe. Heh.
Aaaand – once again Otto for the comment WIN
My 11 yr old has me wondering the same thing chest-wise. Because her chest sticker outer things are painfully, wrongfully more sticker-outery than mine. Someone should explain THAT. I can imagine all the excitement (read: noise) once the kids arrive and it just makes me smile. Have a wonderful holiday!
According to my 2 year-old boy, the answer is “balls” and then chortle mightily.
Heh…my own little girl-stinker at about 2 was watching me get dressed. Eying my chest critically she asked, “Mama…are those RIPE?”
Your Monkey is in demand! Yay! Cousins rock. Have a great time. You know, once Monkey gets there.
Ok – so now I want to know what Chickadee’s answer is going to be. Or yours for that matter. Especially after having to pick myself up off the floor after reading Stephanie’s comment. I think I split something after reading that!!! ;-)