My Sweet Nephews

On Tuesday, I had the ever so wonderful responsibility to tend my sweet nephews Tate and Bryson. No, my nephew's name is not Tate Tate, he is Dustin's sister's child therefore he has a different last name. For some reason whenever I tell people that my nephew's name is Tate, the instant response is Tate Tate? Anyway, I love being able to spend a few hours with my nephews. When Tate was a baby and Dustin was in school, I used to tend him for a few hours every Monday and Wednesday. I am sure that Tate doesn't remember that year and a half or whatever it was, but I will never ever forget that special time I had to spend with him. But I do think that deep inside Tate knows something because I think we have a special bond because of that time that we spent together.

Dustin absolutely adores Tate. He just can't get enough of him and Tate just loves Dustin. When Dustin got home from work, we were downstairs playing Leggos and Tate heard the front door close. "Is that Dustin? I wanna go see Dustin". I could tell that Dustin was on the phone so I had to distract him for a few minutes. For the rest of the evening Tate and Dustin were inseparable. Tate wanted to watch “Buzz” so Dustin put on "Toy Story" and then Dustin went downstairs and brought up a whole pile of books to read to Tate and proceeded to read every single one. I love to see Dustin in that light. I know that he is going to make such a great dad one day (hopefully soon).

Bryson on the other hand is almost the polar opposite of Tate. Bryson is round and laughing all of the time. Tate is bone skinny and is quite shy (until he warms up to a situation/place) then he gets into rare form whether it’s a screaming match with Dustin or running around like he’s on a sugar high. For some reason Bryson didn't want to have much to do with Dustin so Bryson and I were hooked at the hip. I know that it's probably not very mature of me to admit this, but when I was trying to make dinner for Tate, I had Dustin take Bryson. As I place Bryson in Dustin’s lap, he immediately started crying and then continued to cry and cry so I just took him with me in the kitchen. I know if I'm a mom that's not what I should do, but since I'm an aunt, I think that I should at least be able to break some rules. Anyway, I scooped up Bryson and there was something magical to have a little 11 month old boy reach for you with tears streaming down his red face and then the minute you pick him up the tears and the crying instantly stop. Maybe I am just well in need of some self-esteem or self-confidence but it made me feel extra special for a few minutes.

I love my nephews and I would do anything any the world for them! It has been so much fun to see Tate grow up over the past 2 1/2 years. Once a child starts talking and developing a personality, it is so much fun to be in the passenger’s seat along for the ride. I love being an aunt. I am so grateful to Brooke for all of the time that she has given me with my sweet nephews. Even when I become a mom, there will always be something special about being an aunt. I always had wonderful unique relationships with each of my aunt's and I hope my nieces and nephews feel the same way about me. I will only have one demand and that is that they have to call me Aunt Jamie.

The other day Brooke (Tate's mom) told me that they were going through the letters of the alphabet and Brooke said "J. J is for Jamie". Tate's response was "she's cute." Are my nephews going to give me an ego or what?