I had a blast today. I picked up my 9 year old niece, Corie, from school and we went to Barnes and Noble to spend the giftcard I got her for her birthday. Corie was very patient with me as I took several wrong turns, made a couple of U-turns, called Kevin for directions (he wasn't home), and finally buried my nose in the map book to figure out where we were. And that was just to get us TO the bookstore. We then went to get Chinese food and as I made a left turn and cruised down the road, Corie said, "Uh, Aunt Shelby? Pick Up Stix is back there." Oops. And of course it was one of those roads where you couldn't make a U-turn for the next three intersections. But we made it to the restaurant and back home without further incident. We beat both parents back home so we had to sit in the car a little while--no biggy, we did some homework. I went over Corie's spelling words and she got every one right, including distinguishing between "aisle" and "isle" and the bonus word, "expeditions." We also did some of her school reading, but before I could find out what happened to poor Tomas, the migrant farm worker (no joke), my brother came home and let us in.
Corie spent her gift card wisely, getting 5 books--a crossword book, a couple Lizzie McGuire books, and some Junie B. Jones books. We also picked out a Dora the Explorer book for Seana and got a copy of the first Harry Potter because she's reading it in her after school program.
We had a great conversation, and I realized how much I truly love her. She was only 4 when we met, and she's grown up so much, I'm just amazed. One of the reasons we moved down here was to be closer to Corie and Seana (age 2) and Kevin's brother Zach (age 13), and I'm so glad we did. I love being a part of my niece's lives, and I hope I can be the "fun" Aunt (you know, the one who gets them all hopped up on candy and junk food and then drops them off at home--ha ha ha). I'm really glad I'm able to spend some quality time with them.
Posted by Shelby at December 2, 2004 09:25 PM