Manuel (my four-year-old nephew) didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised to see me this morning. He was playing with his trains on the table when I walked in. “Hola,” he said in calm and careless tone, smiling briefly and returning to his trains.
Then his eyes shifted from his cars and off to one side. He blinked a few times and looked up at me with an embarrassed smile, climbed backwards up the back of the couch and fell over onto the seat of the couch where he piled blankets and pillows over his head; giggling foolishly and kicking two bare brown feet in the air.
When Manuel got over his strange affliction he ran into the bedroom to wake Ruth (my six-year-old niece, who is also my greatest fan) and tell her, “Hannah is here!” (In Spain, children do not say “Aunt Hannah” and “Uncle So-and-so.” Aunts and uncles are called by their first names.)
Ruth shuffled out, with squinty, sleepy eyes, to verify the facts. Upon seeing me her eyes opened wide and she ran, beaming into my arms.
I have never surprised them with a visit before, so it was a lot of fun seeing their reactions.
Sofia, who will turn a year old in about a week, is too little to be surprised about these things. When she woke this morning and cried, I ran to her crib to get her. She was sitting sadly in middle of her crib, waiting to be rescued, so when she saw me she just smiled her radiant, charming baby smile and held out her arms.
Ruth asked me who names things. “For example,” she said, “who decided that a book was a book?” (She comes up with some very interesting questions sometimes.) “Was it God?”
Sofia loves me, and it is impossible not to melt before a baby who loves you. She crawls up to my feet, sits up and raises her arms to me. “Da!” she says, her bright eyes looking up into mine. When I smile at her she beams radiantly back and buries her face in my skirt, squealing happily.
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This is an old diary entry I came across. The date is May 2007! I enjoy these memories....
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Awwe, very cute!
I love rediscovering old memories... I found a journal the other day, and talk about a changed life... I am SO different now.
So I can relate
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Thank you for reading this! Mostly, when I re-read this I don't feel that I have changed as much as I am astounded at how quickly my nieces and my nephew are growing! It really makes me feel old... I know it sounds trite, but it literally seems like yesterday that I was rocking month-old Ruth to sleep, etc; but now she's eight years old. (And what does that make me? Ouch. Time is merciless.)
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