On Being an Aunt

Monday the kids were back at school after March Break and the house was quiet again after the drama of races and hockey tournments and girls until my sister came over with my nephew who has been giving his parents a hard time with sleeping lately. Now my nephew is about the cutest, happiest baby on the planet and I love the fact that whenever he sees me his eyes light up and he gives me the biggest toothless grin ever. Being an aunt is almost as good as being a grandmother. I don't think I had this reaction to my brother's children or my husband's brother and sister's kids because in the first instance we were having our babies at the same time. I had Number One, my SIL had hers 10 months later when I was still knee deep in just getting by. Then she had Number Two and two weeks later I had mine. She had Number Three and five months later I followed suit. So we were always going through the same things at almost the same time. No time to sit back and smell the roses or see the forest for the trees or any other cliche. And our other nieces and nephews now range in age from 14 to 19 so back then when my Other Half and I were still foot loose and child free I loved the babies but I had no real appreciation for how much work was involved. Plus we were living out of the country for most of their early years so we only saw them at Christmas and in the summer.







But this one is different. Maybe it is because he is my sister's baby or maybe it is just that I am now the experienced one who gets called upon for advice so even if I can't really remember how my boys reacted to their first solid food I remember all too well trying to get them to sleep through the night. I vividly recall feeding every hour on the hour through the night, watching the digital clock tick through 5 .. 10 ...15 minutes and trying to gently pull a now sleeping baby off and every so gingerly placing him in the crib and holding my breath as I backed out of the room. All the while chanting to myself, "Please don't wake up. Please don't wake up." Finally lying back down in my bed and daring to breath a sigh of relief only to hear, more often than not, a wail. Feeling my whole body tense up at the sound and a feeling in the pit of my stomach that said, "I can't do this again." But getting up and going across the hall to soothe my child because what else is a mother going to do?

Flash forward seven years and I now get to spend time with my seven month old nephew. Did I mention how cute and happy he is at least when he's with me. If he does start to fuss all I have to do is call our dog into the room and PJ is entranced. Or if I have to call in the big guns I just get my Number One Son to take his cousin for a while. The two of them, 12 years apart in age, seem to have a real connection. My oh-so-cool almost teenager will have a bath, change a diaper or walk around for an hour talking with PJ and I swear they understand one another. The other two boys love spending time with him as well but they lose interest more quickly. Number One seems to have far more patience with the cousin than with the brothers. Go figure?

The chances of PJ being an only child are pretty high as he was a IVF baby and my sister turns 40 this year and they are both self-employed so there is no insurance to cover her for another round. So I am thrilled they have chosen to live nearby for both their sake on the child care front and ours. Now the question is whether once my sister goes back to work I will consider becoming my nephew's full time babysitter? Haven't broached the subject with my Other Half or even mentioned it to the boys. My sister and I haven't even talked about it seriously, just lots of off hand comments from both of us. It is a big commitment for me and my family. Oh and did I mention that we are looking into getting another dog as well? At least that will provide double the fun for PJ.

Big Win and First Kiss

The winning run

On the podium

I really don't remember my first kiss specifically. Does that make me a bad person or am I just going senile? But Number Two Son, age 9, has had his. Yesterday, on the chairlift with a girl who he has been "dating" on and off since last ski season. Apparently our little Romeo is quite the catch among his ski team where desirability is in direct proportion to how fast you can ski and what you look like in a downhill suit (something I never have and never will squeeze myself into) the girl/boy thing has reached a crescendo this past week while the kids were off school for March Break. Nine days straight of skiing, sun and sleepovers has resulted in a major outbreak of spring fever.

Up until now I had thought that the boys were quite oblivious to all the attentions of the girls. That my son was dating seemed more an orchestration by the girls of who rode the chairlift with whom but now I'm not so sure.

A kiss, even with goggles and a helmet on is serious stuff. I don't know if I am ready for this next stage. Even with a 12 year old I thought we had more time to prepare for the world of girls calling at all hours, let alone all the online stuff I don't pretend to understand. As a mother of three boys I know there will be many girlfriends passing through our house and, as a friend whose boys are now adults warned me, "Don't get too attached to them. Either they will break your son's heart or he will break theirs. Until you are officially a mother-in-law, don't get too emotionally involved."


Good advice, although I can't help thinking that maybe this girl might be a potential pedicure partner for me in my testosterone filled household.

Just like a Wavin' Flag by K'naan

This has been one of our favourite songs to sing along to in the car when K'naan sang it originally and this new version gives me shivers.

Friday Fragments

I can't remember who hosts Friday Fragments but it seemed appropriate for me today, as I'm not quite up to Happy Hour Friday or even Friday Following. This damn cold just won't go away or even turn into something that would justify staying in bed all day. But on the upside tomorrow is the first day since December 26th that we don't have to get up, get dressed, get packed and get to the ski hill.

Tomorrow I will make sure our bedroom door is shut tight so that neither the dog nor the boys can enter when they wake up at 6am (Sunday will be even better since the time change is Saturday night and it will be darker at 7am and they all might sleep longer) I will remain in bed until someone brings me coffee and the newspapers. We here in Canada get our big weekend editions on Saturday which gives me two days to catch up on all the news I have missed since ski season started. I'd also love some new book suggestions since I seem to have made my way through the stack on my bedside table and I might have some time to read again. And even though after a week solid of sun-shiney spring days we are supposed to get some rain this weekend I don't care. All the better for staying at home or going to a movie, maybe Alice in Wonderland or Avatar for those in the family who haven't seen it yet.

How nice will it be to have a choice other than which race course to stand at the bottom of in sub-zero temperatures to watch one of my sons hurl themselves down at breakneck speed. And although next week is our Spring Break and the boys are off school and back on the hills I might be able to sneak in some time to go riding, take in a St. Paddy's Day party as well as a whole lot of apres ski on the patio. I'll be sure to post some photos. Stay tuned, spring fever has hit the Great White North and you never know what might happen once the snow starts to melt!

Ahhh ... spring skiing

Watching the Junior Club Championships





White is the new black







Enjoying the Apres Ski

The Boys and Crazy Canuck Ken Read

Friday Follow Up

I had such a blast last time I became a Friday Follower that I just had to do it again, that and I gained so many lovely new friends and follwers. So here goes.



Can't wait for life to get back to normal

Step One - My Other Half is home so daily life is a little easier

Step Two - Ski Racing Season is almost over so next weekend we can sleep in !!!!!

Step Three - Get myself back on Facebook and prove to them that I am not at all offensive
(although I'd still love to know what I did that could be any worse than what I saw
every day on my News Feed and it wasn't just my nieces and nephews' spelling)

Step Four - update my monthly banner with some new more spring-like photos, if I can
find spring anywhere

Random Ramblings

Thanks Amy over at Bitchin' Wives Club for hosting Random Tuesday Thoughts this week.

• First off, my facebook account has been disabled for reasons unknown and they don't even have the decency to respond to my very polite email asking, "Why, why?"

• How am I going to keep in touch with my babysitters and check up on all my nieces and nephews to see how out of control their partying and how atrocious their spelling has gotten?

• What am I supposed to do with all the time that watching the Olympics took up? Can't we have a post-Olympic weaning period, maybe cutting down on coverage by say, from 24 hours a day to 20 then 18 and so on ... over the course of another 17 days. Now I have no excuse for not cleaning the house or making the kids do their homework or sitting in the ski lodge on snowy days.

• My Other Half is home after almost three weeks of being away at trade shows. It's back to real meals with vegetables and nothing out of a box. Not to mention the fact that I might have to get back into the habit of showering a little more regularly ... and making the bed ... and dressing in something other than sweat pants.

• Please, can someone explain to me why all the TV shows that I started watching in the fall and liked then went on hiatus after only about six episodes and now apparently they are all at risk of being cancelled? Well, duh. You have to have a show actually on the the air for people to watch and for advertisers to place their commercials, even in this digitally virtual cyber-like world.

• I am in my third winter of not having a bath tub deep enough to cover both my knees and boobs (and not because they are so big, unfortunately) at the same time and I think I might have to take matters into my own hands and rip out the disgusting fiberglass built-in unit in our bathroom and replace it with one of those gorgeous freestanding soaker tubs.

• Finalement, I wish I knew why William Shatner was unable to remember the name of his (and my) alma mater during his monologue at the Closing Ceremonies. It's McGill University not University of McGill. They named the Student Union after him for god's sake! And for all you south of the border, the blow-up beavers and flying moose were not the best part of the show, despite what Redneck Mommy said.