Before I forget

The first week of December was spent in Houston with my family. All the kids, my cousins & their husbands, aunt and ma. As an added treat I also got to hang with Roberto, one of my Paris-vacation highlights - how fun is that? Thanks internet!

Anyways, I have to say the highlight of this trip was, not surprisingly, the kidlettes. These kids are pretty awesome, and they still think I'm pretty cool, so that's fun.

I took my nephew skating for the first time - he was a super trooper and did really well with a couple of decent falls, was willing to let go of my hand to try and skate on his own, and just had a lot of fun with it.

I got to watch my niece during her swimming and ballet lessons, and then had the most incredible experience.

My second last night there I was helping my niece with her homework - the usual reading & writing. I've never helped a child with homework before. I've never had the chance to see a young mind learning something totally new. Reading, to my niece, is totally new. Words like 'why' and 'pox' were unknown, but by the end of our study date, she knew stuff.

I've probably done a poor job articulating how amazing it was to witness this. How incredible it is to see her now, at age 7, when I first saw her as a newborn.

Amazing.

I also went to have lunch with my niece, and had to explain to my nephew that he's my only boyfriend, when he was getting jealous I was meeting up with Roberto.

After explaining to my niece how Justin Timberlake is my talented boyfriend and showing her a video from a concert, she says to me "Aunty Iris, if he's your boyfriend, why is he dancing with another girl?"

Because Aunty Iris doesn't do jealousy.

And then there was my two-year-old niece who watched attentively as I did my make-up one night.

So cute.

But at the end of right now, they aren't cute enough to want. I was exhausted for a good chunk of the vacation, because there is no rest with kids. I wanted to talk like an adult and not worry I was corrupting a young mind.

So now I'm going to sit on my couch, finish watching an R-rated movie, maybe curse during a phone call, and sleep in tomorrow, because I'm an aunt and the kids aren't mine.

That doesn't make them less awesome though.