Kim and I have heard this quite often this month, usually from my Bee-baby (as you can tell from the rather adorable way she pronounces “sisters”). The pronouncement quite often comes after we’ve cracked one another up and commence laughing uproariously, oblivious to whoever is around who might consider us nuts. Like Bee, who looks first to one of us. Then slowly to the other. “You are very silly stisters,” she’ll intone, gravely. And we laugh some more. “One day you and Gracie will be ‘very silly stisters,” we tell her. And they will be. Everyone needs someone to laugh with and someone to lean on.
*****
Gracie struggled to finish her reading log last night. “My eyes can’t stay open, Mom!” she complained. Ignoring for the moment the fact that I told her to go read a chapter an hour before instead of leaving it all until bedtime, I finally got her settled into Auntie Kim’s bed where she could read with the big light on until she was finished. I wasn’t worried about the light being too stimulating – that kid can drop off to sleep faster than you can say “Good night, Gracie.” It was the other one I was worried about. And maybe should have been for other reasons, too, because Bee started crying. “I can’t be in here alone,” she whimpered, trying to choke back the “little kid” tears. “I want Gracie to come in here.” The kid is five and has never slept a night apart from her sister (that she remembers). Already, she’s leaning on that silly stister of hers.
*****
The girls have been calling home more often since Auntie Kim is here to help free some of the burden of single parenting. And now that the girls are in the habit, they’ll frequently ask to call. And while most of the year they ask to call Grandma or Grandpa, since our vacation back home they have been asking to call Uncle Joey. (I figure it is just a matter of time before Uncle Joey starts getting called Crazy Uncle Joey.) Uncle Joey was the one who taught them to roller skate. Who lifted them over his head. Who maybe dangled them off the deck for the thrill of it. (Okay, yeah, not the last one…but I wouldn’t put it past him. You know, if it was safe.) Uncle Joey is the one who lets them use bad words and shows them movies Mom wouldn’t approve of. And the girls – they have caught on. “Let’s call Uncle Joey!” would definitely be code for some dangerous, worry-inducing escapade – if not for the 1700 miles between them. Sometimes I think of that as a moat around my childrens’ police records. (Kidding!)
*****
Today my good friend and longtime reader Kathy is going in for gall bladder surgery. I wish I was closer so I could cook her homemade soup and bake her tasty, gall-bladder friendly desserts with which to recover, but I can’t. Instead, I have to worry about her and let her lean on me from half a country away. (Which mostly involves pestering her with emails and trying not to make her laugh. Not easy when you’re as naturally hilarious as I am.) So – get well, my friend! I’m sure your mom and your kids are taking very good care of you. Make one of them play about a thousand games of Rummy with you while I figure out how to mail soup. Be well and safe and sleeeeeepy so you can wake up and be all the way better.
Yes, all of us need someone to lean on. Bonus points if that person is just as silly as you.
August 31, 2011 at 9:54 am |
I’m guessing the antics suggested by “let’s call Uncle Joey” might be akin to the old “sleepover with Kim and Katie” – code for getting to watch 90210, Saved By the Bell, and Dirty Dancing
September 1, 2011 at 5:41 am |
Everyone needs an Uncle Joey! That is how we walk on the wild side. Our “Uncle Joey” taught the girls to lick out the filling in Oreos, put the two sides together, and put them back in the package. Oh…and taught them to go fishing in the fish bowl and try to catch the goldfish with their hands. Good times. Paybacks were quite fun!