To Some I Am Just A Jungle-Gym

Now I know my four-year old niece has no idea what a jungle-gym is (I asked, that's how I know), but apparently she thinks I am one. The Niece is currently in a phase where she thinks I am awesome. I love that she thinks that, but I have become her own personal jungle-gym. After church today, I spent a good twenty minutes carrying her around and flipping her upside down, pretending to drop her...you know, the usual. She thinks this is great, which means I have to constantly do it and if I don't, she just leans backwards releases her arms and hangs on with her legs...hence the jungle-gym reference.

My one-year old nephew (Nephew J) wanted me to pick him up, but that was not about to happen as long as The Niece was in my arms. She pushed him away and called him "Bad J". She's not normally like that, but as I said...she's in phase where she thinks I'm awesome and of course she does not want to share her awesome toy with her little brother.

Nephew J is a story unto himself. He has just started walking, let's see, this would have been just before Christmas. He is now trucking along quite well. This, apparently, is not enough for little J. His favorite thing to do is go up to a person, ask to be picked up (he's not talking yet, so he uses the universal baby sign for "Pick me up"...he raises his hands and looks at you with those cute little eyes). Upon picking up Nephew J, you then must go wherever he directs you to go. He does this by pointing. I call it his 'demanding finger'. This started at about the time that he started walking; so, many people are still duped into believing that he just likes you and wants to be with you. Uh...No. You are now his personal mode of transportation and you will take him wherever he wants to go.

Currently Nephew L (almost 3), is not in a demanding phase like the other two. He's really starting to talk...all the time, and it is really cute. Usually it is just those of us who are around him all the time that can interpret everything he is saying because some words he pronounces a little different. He loves to tell me about his day. The other day he went into this whole story about how Granddad (my dad) was bulldozing and moving piles of dirt around and was going to plant grass for the cows to eat. I'm not sure there are over four people that could have figured out what he was saying...His dad, his mom, my mom and me.

Boy I love those kids...even if I am just a jungle-gym with wheels!