Being an Aunt

Being an Aunt isn't like being a mom...or a grandmother...or a sister (and I wouldn't know anything about those anyway.) But I do know something about being an aunt, and that's because I have two adorable nieces. Part of the joy of having my brother and his family on the East coast is that I can fly up last minute (for astonishingly low prices) and visit whenever I want (or they need) me to.

Some people might not even like being and Aunt. Sometimes it means getting your hair pulled, and sometimes it means getting all worn out with 2 and 3 year olds climbing all over your body and pushing on the uncomfortable parts. But here are some fun things that I discovered about being an Aunt. (They correspond to the pictures... and though there were more fun things, I decided to limit it to these.) And honestly, I think parents do a lot of these things too.... All this is from when I went to Boston for a week towards the end of January. (less than a week after we got back from Williamsburg!)

1) Being an Aunt is fun when you can go "sailing" on comforters in the middle of the floor. Incidentally, this is almost as fun and not quite as energy-dependent as "going to the zoo".

 

2) Being an Aunt means I can read as many stories as I want all day long....and make them up too! (Actually, some of you may know that I do this even when I'm not "being an Aunt".) 

3) Being an Aunt means that I get to go to a playground, pretend I'm a real photographer, and have almost as much fun as the girls!

4) Being an Aunt means that I'm allowed to encourage them and take pictures when my nieces are being outrageously silly with their friends.

 

5) Being an Aunt means that I can cook something strange every once in a while. This happens to be octopus (or squid? I'm not sure, actually). I know Margaret doesn't look very excited, but she and Adelynn both put away quite a bit. Adelynn had never had any before and had picked it out at Costco as her "special treat." She told me about it a few days later and assured me that she would share it with me....that it would be our special treat. 

 

6) Being an Aunt means I can have TEA PARTIES at the genuine tea time of 4 o' clock every day because a) it's when the girls get up from nap time, and b) they always want a snack right then. So even though they're only 2 and 3, we get out the nice china and the tea cups and we have cheese and bread and fruit for snacks! SO fun. Every day after the first, the girls would ask me if they could have a tea party. What did I say? "YES!" 

And finally, 7) An Aunt and her nieces can have "girl time" when we pull out two enormous bags of little household items and set up a whole miniature house! I know it sounds so 5 year old of me, but it was SO fun!