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Girl Just Wants to Have Fun
My niece, Amari, visited for three days last week. She takes her job of being a kid very seriously. She is full of energy, imagination, and constant questions and demands. I love her so much. We did everything I could think of to keep her happy and occupied. I take my job as Super Auntie very seriously.
We went on morning wagon rides around the park, picked flowers and lemons, told stories, read books, made smoothies, scones, and lemonade. We dug out her grandma’s Barbie collection from the depths of the garage, and I let her play with a few of the less breakable items.
She is such a lively firecracker. The toy that kept her entertained the longest was a squirt bottle filled with water. She squirted and “cleaned” everything. A lot of it went down her mouth. I remember doing that as a kid, too. Water tastes so much better that way.
She absolutely delighted me.
But I was also super glad when bedtime finally rolled around. Playing with a kid all day is exhausting!
Whenever I felt annoyed or tired of being chatted at so much that I couldn’t think straight, I reminded myself that we were making core memories. These are the things Amari will remember and carry on into her life. I feel so special to be part of her memory. I won’t go into details for privacy’s sake, but this little girl does not have an easy life.
I love that her childhood is filled with smiles and peals of laughter that come so naturally. Children are blessed with optimism. They seem to have plenty of serotonin.
Over three days, we had a crash course in all the fun: baking, tent forts, favorite breakfasts, and mouths full of whipped cream.
I even snuck a few hours away to make a doll with her. She chose the fabric and the hair color and then played with Grandma (my mom) until I could finish sewing it. Dinner got waylayed, and household chores fell by the wayside, like they do. I am Super Auntie, but I can’t do it all. I sure tried, though.
Painting, making messes, and getting lots of one-on-one attention were so good for both of us. I wish I had the resources to do this daily with her like I did with Bug.
We maximized the three days, and I look forward to the next intense Auntie time I get. Her mom promised me that we could do this regularly as she needs a break from momming too. I remember that exhaustion well. It takes a village to give a child have a happy childhood.
Amari is a lot. She goes, goes, goes like an Energizer Bunny until she falls alseep hard like a phone with a dead battery.
And then the next day she’s all charged up to 100% and off we go again.
I love this kid and her wild imagination. She is just like her mom was at this age. It’s like I get Rapunzel all over again.
When I look at the world through her eyes, I am filled with hope. I hope she has all the opportunities she deserves. I hope the obstacles she was born into make her strong and more independent than those who have gone before her. I’m scared for her and all the difficulties she will face, but I am not as full of serotonin.
But I’m getting as much as I can! We both are. We found this white dog (a Great Pyranese) and told him he looked just like Cody.
The end.
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Home on the Range
I was on such a roll with my newfound time for blogging that I had prepped this post and was just about to write it up. Then I decided I was tired and wanted to go to bed instead and write it the next day. That’s all fine, but I also have my laptop set up for automatic updates, and that night, when I went to bed, it was set to update to the latest operating system.
The following day, when I sat down to type up this post, I was greeted with the worst thing any laptop owner can be greeted by: the black screen of death.
I’m no stranger to the black screen of death. I’ve been through this many times, so I knew it could be as simple as re-installing the latest OS, a little more complicated as erasing the hard drive, losing whatever I’ve worked on since my last backup (two weeks ago), or worst case, shipping it off to Apple for 5-7 business days. I’ve paid for Apple Care since I left my ex-husband, my personal Mac IT guy, and it’s been worth every penny. Whatever the prognosis was, I was offline until I could get to an Apple Store. My brother isn’t exactly close to an Apple store in the middle of the desert in Texas.
There went all those posts I would write in my downtime in Texas.
Good news! Today, my dad and I drove to the nearest Apple Store, and they re-installed the latest operating system and I am as good as new! I’m so happy and relieved.
Bad news: I’m back-posting. I’m already back in California, but I am now blogging about my time in Texas.
I had a good time. It was a real adventure. I don’t love the dry, dusty, barren desert of West Texas (or how dusty it makes my brother’s house), but it was very photogenic. The sunrises and sunsets were incredible.
My brother owns ten acres of dry, barren, dusty desert. He has grand plans for our whole family to move out there and live on a compound. I’m not as keen on that idea, but it is an option if California falls into the ocean or life gets so expensive that we are forced out. Lately, that’s been seeming more and more possible, much to my dismay.
When I rented a Uhaul for my move to my parents, I found out there was a shortage of moving trucks in California because so many people were moving away. I’ll be very sad when I have to leave my home state. But I’ve been giving up many things lately, so I’m learning to accept hard things and make the best of them.
Cody seems to like the dry, dusty ground just fine and gets along well with my brother’s other five dogs and three cats.
Momo stays indoors, but she also seems to love Texas. She loves my brother’s big house and her new playmates (two kittens and a dachshund). They run the length of the house all day long. It’s great.
Me, I just loved taking pictures. Every day, I thought I’d seen it all, and then the light would change, and I had a whole new world to explore with my camera.
Texas does not lack in beautiful skies. From horizon to horizon, as far as I could see, were beautiful colors changing right before my eyes.
It was so peaceful out there.
My brother and I talked about all his plans for his land. We discussed everything from rainy season to mud season to mosquito season and beyond. He plans to have a big garden in the spring, and I’m excited to see it.
I’m happy that he’s happy. Maybe someday I’ll find my happiness out there, too, but for now, I’m going to hold onto my California girl cred as long as I can.
