6 posts tagged “family”
My brother, my only sibling, is ten years older than me. When I was growing up that felt like a lifetime and I always used to equate my kuya with just a more happenin' version of my parents. My brother is responsible for my love of Hip Hop which, if you know me, is almost like saying my brother made me who I am. Except, you know, without all that 9 months of pregnancy, child rearing and all that jazz. You get my drift.
Anyway, he told me the other day that he had recently got an account on MySpace in order to find out what was going on with some of his old college buddies. Being the Nosy McNoserson that I am, I found him on there and added him as a friend.
Reading through his profile revealed that there are basic things about my own blood that I never knew until now. Simple stuff like what my brother's favorite movie is, that he's a big U2 fan... stuff I probably know about you guys reading this that is all new to me about a guy I've known since I was born!
And not that I'm knocking my relationship with my brother. He's got his own family and kids and I've got my own life with all its strange hobbies and activities, so it's not like I'm pining away for lost years where I could've had genuine "bonding" moments with him. My family, while close, isn't close in a way that we know exactly what the other would want for Christmas without having to explicitly ask for a list. Meanwhile I could probably rattle off half a dozen things to give any one of you guys that you'd probably appreciate.
In a way, there's a strange kind of comfort in knowing that there are things that my family will probably never understand about me. Or maybe I just could never imagine being that open with them. I'm sure I could trace this all back to how I was raised, but in the meantime I'm just going to make it a point to not read my brother's profile so much... does that make sense?
...
Probably not, huh?
While over at my brother and sister-in-law's house yesterday my 7-year-old nice came up to me, gave me a hug and said, "You know, Auntie, you gave us (she and her younger brother) the best Christmas gifts."
Who's the coolest auntie ever? Me.
Can I die happy now? Quite possibly!
...
Good to know I've gotten into the good graces of the nephew after Birthday Present Fiasco 2007. Thomas the Tank Engine... what's all that noise?! Where are my Transformers?!
So, I gave the little bugger (he asked if I could exchange it for a Transformer a couple weeks later when I saw him again and after he had played with it and sorta-said he liked it) the Transformers: Autobots DS game for Christmas then promptly had to play it for him while he watched because the game is recommended for kids 10 and up. Whoops. (He's five.) I'm pretty sure he enjoys the idea of having the game much more than the game itself at this point.
Charol, Shral, Sherlly, etc. Sometimes I wonder if I have a speech impediment and people are actually writing the way I'm saying it.
However, I think Friday morning's Starbucks version totally wins over anything I've ever gotten. I'm totally using this as my drag queen stage name in my next life when I come back as a guy. Holler!
There are the proud grandparents. Please note how my Dad and Ella basically have the same amount of hair on their heads. Difference in age? Oh, about 60.
She's basically at her drool, eat, sleep stage, so I can't say much about personality yet. However, she's probably the most laid back kid so far. She generally just chills, doesn't cry much until she gets hungry and gums her left hand a lot.
While hanging out at my brother and sister-in-law's house tonight in celebration of my nephew's 5th birthday I was helping his older sister out with her homework. Task? Think of three words that have the short "a" sound (apple, bat, swam, etc.). Trying to be the helpful auntie rather than the usual tired and grumpy post-commute auntie I gave my 7-year-old niece, Zoe, this hint:
"I'm thinking of an animal with big teeth and a big mouth that swims in the swamp," while making big chomping motions with my hands.
Zoe looked at me intently till her face brightened up, "Platypus?!!"
Me: "No... alliga--wait! That's a short "a" too!"
Then I helped her spell out "platypus." My niece = genius. Just let me believe it.
Earlier, during dinner at Mel's (the nephew's favorite spot after a hard day of pre-school), I got treated to an almost entire recitation of Transformers: The Movie (animated, natch) by the Dynamic Duo of Zoe and Ethan complete with Soundwave-like voice acting and my nephew trying to sound like Starscream. Level of awesomeness? IMMEASUREABLE. Then I remembered how I was Zoe's age when my older brother and I watched the very same movie at an old theater in the hometown. We snuck in after a arriving late and seeing that no one was at the ticket booth anymore.
After that, though, Common at Mezzanine!
I'm going to start practicing my Zen mentality so that if he performs "The Light" I can tune all the other girls screaming for his babies in the audience and just pretend that he's rhyming only to me. Awww yeah.
Guess who's going to be an auntie again?
Just got a phone call to announce that the sister-in-law is pregnant! Woohoo!
Hope Ethan (age 4) and Zoe (age 6) are ready for a new sibling in 2007.
(Keep shooting those kids out, man, 'cause Mom and Dad sure as hell ain't getting grandkids out of me in the next era. LOL)
