6 posts tagged “nieces”
Today, I said to my niece Madison, who's 4, "Did you know that your mommy is my sister, like the way that Abby is your sister?" She said "Noooo!" And I said "Yup, and your Grandma is my mommy! And Grandpa is my daddy!" And she said "Nooo!" And then we explained how her great Grandma is our Grandma, and I'm pretty sure her little world collapsed into itself.
I really don't see the point of having kids if you're not going to mess with their minds once in a while. It's not MEAN, she'll understand the whole family concept in like, what? A year? It's fun!
Buying gifts for little kids, especially toddlers, isn't as easy as one would think. You should just be able to go to the toy aisle at Target, grab something, and slap a bow on it but NOPE. Toddlers have opinions and favorites and little sisters who will swallow small pieces of plastic.
Most gift purchases for my nieces start out with my sister saying "Madison would really like..." and end with me saying "Madison would really like a savings bond!" But this year, I'm putting actual thought into each and every one of my gift purchases, so that means looking high and low for stuff that Madison will like but Abigail can be around safely.
In-freakin-possible. Madison is three and if she had her way, she'd play with matches and huge balls of dryer lint. That stuff's really flammable and she knows it.
So I was poking around Amazon, thinking about stuff little girls like. I know Madison likes her Disney crap - Cindawella, the red headed one, the song about the magic LSD trip carpet ride. She has a whole CD that my sister plays in the car that's all Disney songs. Honestly, I think my sister likes it more than she does, but that's neither here nor there.
So, music. That's a good gift. They both have CD players in their bedrooms, Abigail probably can't shove a CD down her throat, and Madison likes to hum along to whatever. But the problem with kid's music is that it's all really annoying and sort of dumb.
Then I remembered a couple months ago when a few blogs mentioned the Rockabye Baby! lullaby renditions of Radiohead songs. I looked and there are a ton of these CDs! I picked up the Metallica CD for Madison (cause she's a little bit rock and roll) and the Cure CD for Abigail (because she reminds me of me, which means she should start learning how to be goth ASAP). I also picked up the Coldplay CD for my girl friend's son. He's two and likes music and his mommy likes Coldplay, so it's perfect! There's also Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and a few others.
I just ordered the CDs today so I haven't heard them yet, but the little clips on Amazon are really enjoyable. The extra bonus of this gift is that the kid's parents will love it just as much as the kid does.
I spent the afternoon with a group of kids ages 7 weeks - 4 years. Holy crap kids have a lot of energy. Well, not the 7 week old. She just kinda chilled in my arms all "Hey, lady. Got milk?" while staring at my cleavage. I was never really into kids until my first niece came along but now I'm all "GIMME YER BEBE" so I can make goofy faces and shit. It's so unlike me.
I really wish I had been smart enough to grab my phone while my baby niece was eating cake so I could share a pic. She definitely takes after my side of the family and loooooves to eat. I can't believe she's a year old already!
I let Vox title my post. I guess it knows something I don't?
These are my nieces... in a laundry basket. The voices you hear in the background are my sister, my dad and my mom (I think, she and my sister sound exactly alike). Babies in a basket. Does the cuteness ever end? I took the video with my Nokia 7610.
I know it's because we're related and they're my nieces and of course I think they're cute but look at this face..
Is that not the cutest little face? She's always smiley like that!
And look at her!
Couldn't you just eat her up?! She says my name like "Cai-een," it's so cute I could just die.
And then you put the two of them together...
Guh. I was never a huge fan of kids until these two showed up and now it's like I can feel my ovaries twitching.
This photo of my niece Madison was taken at Brookfield Zoo, I think sometime last year. I love that she's doing that little kid thing with her jacket. My sister's photography skills have vastly improved since Madison was born three years ago!
