Family

This is my nephew D. He's 5. He's the only son from the first marriage of my stepsister C to the guy she eloped with after knowing him for 2 weeks. The managed to stay together for 2 years and produce this wonderful little munchkin. Now C is married to a good friend of my brother's, who she met at my brother and sister-in-law's wedding, and they have a second son, J, who's 2-1/2. They live in St. Louis and I never get to see them, except on the occasional Christmas.


My parents picked D up this past weekend in my Mom's new Prius in Hannibal, MO so he could stay with them and have a weekend in the "big city."

I loaned my camera to them because they forgot theirs. Here are a couple examples of my mother's handiwork behind the lens:




I saw D on Thursday night after my Elvis 5K and then also came over after my minitri on Saturday morning, too. I ended up spending the whole day with them Saturday and slept over with Lois that night.

We went to the beach on Saturday with my brother and sister in law (above - can you tell?), and they went to the zoo while I went to the bike shop and took a shower. We went out to dinner and D got really tired.



The next morning, at 6am, Lois started barking and I woke up to see that D. had woken up. I dragged myself out of bed and took him and Lois to the beach again, where, before like 9am, when it officially opens, they allow dogs.



On the way to the beach he showed me some of his tricks. It was nice to spend time alone with him. He's a pretty neat kid! Plus, he and Lois got along great, which was a relief, because she's not fond of many kids. But she loved D.



Although it was dog swim time, and the waves were crazy, and it was 6:30am, and only about 65° out, and we weren't wearing swimming suits and I hadn't brought towels or a change of clothes, the first one in the water was not the dog, but (of course) D. He went in and got his shorts wet and I said, "Just don't get your head wet!" for fear that he'd catch some horrendous cold and have to walk all the way home all purple-lipped and freezing... well, his head was under the water within about 10 seconds. He loves the water. He was like - "it's not even salty!" (which I know, means he was tasting it, ugh) and just kept flinging himself into the waves and playing. It was fun to watch.



On the way back I got a taste of what my parents had alluded to when they said he'd been difficult. He stopped and sulked. He wouldn't move. I talked, I poked I joked I promised and I threatened, and he would not budge. He did this twice on the way back, but luckily I got him going. He just would get in these foul, obstinate states that were insanely hard to figure out or to 'crack.'

Then, we all went to one of my favorite breakfast restaurants and he ordered Swedish meatballs. He loved them!



He did the stubborn thing a few more times and my parents got furious. He had also spent most of the weekend not saying please, or thank you, which made them very upset. By the time they were ready to go, I tried to get a picture of all three of them, but D refused to look up, and that was it - they just got him into the car and pulled away. I felt bad that I couldn't say goodbye to him before he left Chicago, but he wasn't even looking at me, and I couldn't force him. Sort of a big bummer.

They were packing up I guess, because about an hour later, I got a phone call. To my surprise, it was D. Here's the conversation:

(Very quiet, high 5-year-old voice): "Sorry."

"Hi D! What are you sorry for?"

(Still quiet) "Sorry."

"But why are you saying you're sorry?"

"Because I'm sorry!!"

"No, but I mean, what are you sorry about?"

"Because I wouldn't smile when you wanted to take our picture and I was..."

"Sulking?"

"Yeah..."

"OK, I accept your apology - I'm glad you called!"

"OK. Bye." (fumbling with the phone in background) muffled voice: "Poppy? Where's the off button?"Click.



It's funny how family reacts to different personalities. I almost feel that the way I had giant screaming fits as a kid was easier for my mom to handle because a) it'd be obvious what it was about (usually something very appropriate, I am sure..!), b) I'd be really done afterward, quickly going back to being the perfect little girl, plus, c) then she could react with yelling and somewhat chaotic behavior, too, which was sorta all she was capable of at the time. But with the way D behaves, we all were just like, "What the hell do we do??" ...and I think he liked that.

I am also sure that spending more time with him will be a really good thing. I get to see all of C's family in less than a month for my mom's surprise 60th b-day party. THAT will be fun!