July 29, 2009

There's a lot going on in the news this week.

• Someone allegedly stole Michael Jackson's nose from the morgue.  He supposedly had a jar with 6 noses to choose from in his closet.

• Rumors are flying that Rihanna is hooking up with Chris Brown again, fueled by their stays at Trump Tower in NYC last weekend.

• The Bachelorette chose the guy she'll dump soon get married to (I didn't watch).

• “More to Love” premiered last night (nope, not watching).

• President Obama wants the parties involved in the Harvard professor arrest debacle to sit down in the White House with him and have a beer, but it can only be a domestic beer.

• South Texas is experiencing a serious drought and off-duty cops are on patrol for water wasters, while neighbors are tattling on each other for using their sprinklers.

I don't really want to talk about that stuff though, because today is Big T's birthday!  Twenty-five years ago today, I became an aunt for the first time.  I've been blessed with another nephew and a niece since then, and all three are equally special, but there's something unforgettable about that first experience when you realize you're an aunt.  I can't quite describe it, except to say that being an aunt has been one of the greatest joys of my life.

I can remember when Big T was born, and I have lots of snapshots in my mind of him as Lil T and Medium T over the years.

• I'll NEVER forget how we had to pull over for an emergency diaper change in my '84 Chrysler Laser on the way back from visiting our grandmother in West Texas. When I say emergency, I mean EMERGENCY DIAPER CHANGE!  Don't breathe; just get that diaper off the kid and then let's see how fast we can drive with the windows down to air out the funk in the car!

• I remember LilSis and I taking Lil T to the first Main Street Arts Festival, struggling with the stroller over the power cables.  I still go to that every year, all these years later, but it's never as much fun as that first year.

• I can hear him repeating “I weddy go now!” at increasing decibel levels until we finally left the State Fair of Texas.  When he was done, he was done!

• I can see Lil T sitting in his car seat – face red as a beet and sweating like a pig who knows he's dinner (as Dr Phil would say) – waiting on the a/c to fire up in the middle of a sweltering Texas summer.  All he could say was “Haaaa”, which was toddler-speak for hot.  We still say that in our family when we're really hot.

• We still laugh about his acting debut as a little hobo, when he ad libbed and scooped up a fellow actress in his wheelbarrow and scooted her all around the stage, to our amusement but to the horror of his teacher!

• Even though it's NOT funny and I'm NOT advocating violence, I can't help but laugh at the story of him stabbing a bully kid in the leg with a pencil, after warning him that one more insult of “fancy pants” would end with graphite in his leg. 😀

• I still think about the July 4th parades we used to go to, with 100 degree heat at 9 am, and wonder why we did it!

• And I have tons of memories of his hockey goals and his smooth signature wrap-around-the-goal move.

So how did the years fly by so fast?  Now Big T is a grown-up man with a responsible job, an incredible sense of humor, a big personality, and some really cool tattoos!  How did this happen?  WHEN did this happen? Somehow 25 years passed…

Happy birthday, Big T!  You're an awesome nephew; thanks for making me an aunt!  And thanks for all of the memories.  I can't wait for 25 more years as your aunt.

Note to our readers:  Thanks for indulging me today while I went off on a personal walk down memory lane.  I couldn't let this day pass without a shout-out to Big T!

~BigSis