logo

Let's be clear, fellow savvy aunties--I would rather wear a black mohair sweater in August than run. I would not run if someone was chasing me with a machete. I ran one time. It was in the ninth grade, and I did it because I had to. I hated it. So now I don't know do it anymore. Ever.

But I'm running. It's true. No one is chasing me. There is no machete. Someone is going to fire a gun (not a real gun, a race gun), and I'm going to run a 10k. That's like 7 miles or something. I'm not sure; kilometers are like dog years. I'm running because I love my best girl Kelli like nothin' doin'. I love her second baby boy, Jasper, and I loved her her first baby boy, Kamran (Cameron in English). Her husband is pretty ok, too.

Kamran was my boyfriend. He was born in January 2007 and he died in November of 2008. Kamran liked fish, grass, Elmo, roaring like a dinosaur and sleeping with his stuffed bear, Cody. He loved his mommy and his daddy and all his savvy aunties. He liked to play, and if you didn't play with him, he would come over and pat your face until you did. He had giant brown eyes like his mommy, and he had a really complicated thing called Monosomy-7. That means he had a really, really rare form of Leukemia (JMML) that only hits babies. It doesn' have any risk factors or genetic indicators--it's just a chromosome mutation, and it happens because it happens. That's it.

JMML also doesn't have much in the way of research funds, because it is so rare. So that's why I'm running. Because I love Kamran, and I told him I would be a good auntie when he was born, and promised I would take care of his mommy after he died.

So, I'm running. In ninth grade, I didn't know what it meant to love like an Auntie. Now I'm an Auntie, and I run to the ends of the earth, while wearing a black mohair sweater, in the middle of August, if it keeps someone else's nephew alive.

Two of my nieces are local; I have so enjoyed watching them learn to walk, and then to talk. You just never know what will fall off their tongues!

My sister-in-law is a stay-at-home mom. For "adult" interaction, she will keep the TV news on. No one realized exactly how much news she watched until Bella, who was 15 months old at the time, pointed at the TV one day and said "Oh BAM MAMA!" To this day, she is quite certain that every African-American man she sees is named "Obama". It must be easy to say; she says it quite often, to the consternation of her republican parents & grandmother!

Lizzie was born a princess diva without any prompting. She's been into shoes since she first noticed them. She also really loves pocket books - anything will be a pocket book - and then she found sunglasses; she calls them "brights". She was the one who came up with putting the sunglasses halfway down her nose, cocking her head, batted her eyes, and says "stylin'".

Until very recently, Bella was inseparable with her pacifier. She even gave it a name: Footy. Well, some days it sounded like "foo-ty" and some days it sounded like "foo-dy" but no matter what, Bella and footy didn't stray far from one another.... until the day she bit the tip off of it. My SIL seized the opportunity to break her of it, so she began to snip a little off the cork every day, until there wasn't enough to suck on and keep it in the mouth. At that point, she and Bella took out an envelope, drew a picture "for da babies" and put footy in the envelope with the picture. Then they walked to the mailbox and "mailed" footy to a needy girl. Bella now things the mailman has her footy and will wave "bye bye mail car and footy" when she hears the box lid close.

I am wondering how long it will take Lizzie to realize that there is no "H" in the word "sit". Until then, it is quite comical to hear her use the word so emphatically when she wants you to read her a story!

A few weeks ago, Lizzie started saying "I know" in a sing song voice. It took a day or two, but we finally figured out that she was actually singing a song she learned at church that goes "who made the beautiful rainbow? I know; I know!"

My SIL babsits Lizzie during the week. She has been teaching the girls sign language along with their ABC's. I didn't know this and when I tried to sing the ABC song with them without signing the letters, Bella told her mother "Auntie no dumb", which made us both double over. Bella then came over and pulled my THUMB out of the way so I could make the letter A!

To Bella, loud noises are "sceeeeery" and "sorry" and "story" sound nearly the same.

Lizzie was riding in the car with her grandmother a few weeks ago and they drove by a farm where the cows were lined up at the fence. The "moo" was "big" and comes with hand motions. Now everything that is bigger than she is "moo big".

And, naturally, at 25 and 21 months, they are both in the "no" stage. Everything is "no", and when its not, its 'yellow'. Go figure!