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  • Monday, September 03, 2007

    Priorities!

    So Saturday was my stepmother's birthday (as well as my cousin's daughter's first birthday), and Sunday was my nephew's birthday (as well as my stepbrother's wife's birthday). We have lots of duplicate birthdays in my family. More than average, I would suspect. In addition to those two, my brothers share a birthday (four years apart). My sister and my cousin share a birthday too. There may be more that I am forgetting...

    Anyway, so SM and I were over at my dad's place on both Saturday and Sunday for birthday festivities. Our standard is to bring the ice cream cake. 'Cuz everyone loves ice cream cake, myself and SM included. On Sunday, we took Gidget with us in addition to the second ice cream cake because it was an afternoon thing for my nephew, P, who turned four.

    We also wanted Gidget to get used to car rides that didn't end at the vet's. And, we wanted her to get used to being at other houses, especially so that we can hit up relatives for doggy-sitting duties. P was thrilled to see her. He chased her around calling, "Gigit... Gigit..." trying to get her attention. She was more interested in checking out the various interesting smells (left by many previous dogs) around the house. So I asked P if he wanted to to feed her a doggy biscuit. He nodded vigorously and said, "Yes." I told him to go get one.

    A few minutes later, he came back and poked me a few times on my hip to get my attention. "Hey, hey," P said. "There are no doggy biscuits."

    Hey, hey?

    My nephew -- whom I have know his entire life and who sees me semi-regularly -- learned and remembered Gidget's name within nano-seconds. Me? The aunt who brings the ice cream cake? Notsomuch. He didn't know my name! I guess that's about par for a four-year old's priorities. Dog? High. Me? Definitely way down there.

    So we went looking for doggy biscuits, and indeed, there were none to be found. So as not to disappoint a 4-year old on his birthday, I gave P a potato chip to give to Gidget. He called her (she came) and told her to sit (she sat). Then he waved the chip around and chucked it on the ground (she gobbled it). It was somehow anti-climatic. But both Gidget and P were happy.

    I have to say that P has the best personality of any kid I've ever met. I remember his first Christmas (when he was 3 months old). He was so much fun. He literally would laugh and giggle and entertain me for hours by merely being happy. So cute. And he's growing up to be a super fun kid too. I've never seen him throw a tantrum or be more than slightly grumpy.

    In addition to his great personality, he also does a few things which are greatly amusing to me and the rest of the family: he loves high heels, wears bracelets and shiny things, carries a purse and has been known to wear a tank top t-shirt that was so long that it resembled a dress (and when asked what he was wearing, P would kinda just shrug his shoulders -- he wouldn't say it was a dress, but he wouldn't say it wasn't either). Yesterday, he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. But he was also playing with a Barbie most of the day. (Hey, Scooter, I think P and Conner would get along great! They're about the same age, too, right?)

    Now, no one in the family thinks anything is wrong with this. If anything, we all get a grin out of his wardrobe choices. P's dad might squirm a bit when P insists on carrying a purse, but no one tries to change his behavior or tells him to stop doing what he's doing. In fact, I gave him a purse for his birthday last year because P was always "borrowing" his sister's purses. A pink purse. It went well with his blond hair and blue eyes. But maybe wasn't as shiny and sparkly as he would have liked. Oh well. And all of us admire his ability to get around in high heels. He's better in them than I am. No question.

    This year, in addition to tons and tons of other gifts, P was given a GI Joe. His dad said it was a "boy doll". I said, "Oh, no. It's an action figure." But P's dad winked at me and corrected me that it was a boy doll. Later, P got a male Barbie (not a Ken doll, but a male doll that looked like it was in the Barbie line but I don't know what his name was...) that was dressed in a prince outfit. I said, "Now the action figure can beat up the boy Barbie." Someone else said, "No, they'll be friends." My sister chimed in, "Yeah, but who's going to be the beard?" We all cracked up. We amuse ourselves greatly. P did his happy dance -- which had several variations ranging from something that looked like the zombie walk from the Thriller video to a great Flashdance impersonation... he's a maniac! Guess you had to be there. We were all amused by P's presents, probably more than P himself.

    But the big present for P was a battery-powered jeep, the perfect 4-year old terror machine. I remember getting cars like that when I was a kid, but they were pedal operated. This one even had a radio! He liked it. His 12-year old sister liked it (even though she could barely get into it). P especially enjoyed trying to run people over in it.

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