Auntie: that’s me,

Uncle Gary, is what I will be calling my husband of 20 years, since that is how he is called more often then not in our home. He is a big guy, with an even bigger heart. Generous to a fault sometimes. He leaves ‘love notes’ in the most unusual places for me to find throughout the day. Bean’s notes are just as special and thoughtful and are usually left on the bathroom mirror, to be found before she leaves for school. Gary is a 'car guy' and an avid reader.

Buddy [aka Mohawk David] is an intelligent  6 year old boy who visited us during his spring break, and who is spending a bit of his summer break with us. Buddy's eager to please and tries to be as helpful as a 6 year old knows how. Sometimes that works out and sometimes not so much. He's interested in everything and strives to put it all in a context that he can use so that he can pass on the knowledge to the younger children.  My husband has a car in the garage which I referred to as a 'hotrod',  Buddy used that word at least a dozen times, trying it out...getting the feel for it, and finally telling the younger kids all about it..how sweet is that.

JuJuBe is the oldest of my ‘Daycare Kids’. She loves to be the center of attention, in fact prefers it that way. I think it’s the bossy 5 year old coming out, which turns out is a good thing. If I need an extra ‘hand’ all I have to do is ask JuJuBe, and she’s got my back. It is the sweetest thing to watch her draw herself up straight and tall saying "Yeah, I can help!" then off she runs to get spoons for the table, bibs or sippie cups for the little ones. She is just so fascinated with being a ‘little mother’ and I love to tell her that she is ‘in charge’ while I use the restroom. There go the hands to her hips, and orders fly! Of course the little ones ignore her, but she just keeps going anyway, there’s no stopping JuJuBe.

Sissy is JuJuBe’s little sister. Sissy is sweet and gentle, and turns out, that she is fairly good at manipulation. Who knew! Sissy is a 4 year old and loves Dora the Explorer and Scooby-Doo. Sissy will become exasperated when she has to watch something that the older kids want to watch. She’ll scrunch up her nose and tell me "we don’t want to watch that again, do we, maybe I can pick something this time." When I tell her that "no, ‘we’ don’t want to watch this particular movie, but its not our turn to pick" she pouts, then flips the happy switch and sits and watches with the big kids.

Repeat is next in line. She is a precocious 3 year old who will repeat everything she hears eventually. It may be 6 months later but never fear she has retained every scrap of information that has passed her way and will repeat it in the correct context. She has such a sharp wit that sometimes you can forget that she’s so young. If I tell Repeat to get out of the kitchen because I am cooking, she’ll just look at me and say "well, I didn’t want you anyway." and off she goes. I’m put in my place and she’s out of the kitchen, I guess all’s fair in love and war, right?

Sunshine is the oldest of the two boys by 12 days. He was dubbed Sunshine as an infant because he has the most beautiful smile, two dimples and his eyes light up. Sunshine has a round little face and strawberry blond hair that glows in the light. He loves hugs and kisses as long as he is the one giving them, and giddy-up horse is his favorite game. At one and a half the terrible twos are here, thankfully he’s not mean, he just has no fear of anything and he defines the word stubborn.

Little Man is everything you want a child to be in the morning. He’s cheerful as soon as his eyes open, no cuddling needed. Of course this also means that he is running wide open from the start, so there is no time for Auntie to ‘wake up’. When Little Man gets caught doing something wrong he just throws his head back and laughs, there’s absolutely no remorse. My mother refers to him as Eat Eat, and it fits him perfectly! I have never seen a child who could eat so much and be so happy doing it.

Cookie is the baby of the group, and she hopes that never changes, she is spoiled in a good way, by everyone (well...except the boys). She is six months younger then the boys but holds her own well, she doesn’t just give up a toy, there’s a fuss. She loves to sit and read and wants the same book to be read to her over and over and over. I now have most of it memorized and she probably does too.