Day 22: Durham to Swansboro – Nephews

On September 14 around 12:19pm, my sister sent me a text, “It’s raining like crazy here. Are you still on the road?”

Aww…that was awful sweet of her thinking about her big sister getting wet on the road, especially when you consider she had been in labor for a little more than 4 hours now. Guess, she was bored or something.

But seems my nephew was waiting to make his grand debut until I arrived while mother nature decided to dump a rogue cell of downpour right over where I was headed. The view out the window of my lunch stop said 85F and sunny, but the radar on my phone said, “You are going to get wet, very wet.” See Jacksonville there.

This was the last leg of my ride across the continent. I was looking forward to long stay with family. So, I didn’t really care much about a little water. I added rain covers to my luggage and headed out. Fortunately, I timed my arrival in Swansboro to be between waves of down pours and as I parked in the garage, the skies opened up and dumped an amount of water that only seems logical and possible if you live in coastal North Carolina. And about an hour later, my arrival got upstaged by the appearance of Alex Koamalu (Alex “Peaceful Courage” for those mainlanders not versed in Hawaiian).

Good timing, right?

Last time I visited my sister, I offered to pick up my nephew (Alex’s big brother, Evan) from daycare and take him to the aquarium. At that time, I, the childless one, got plenty of coaching, plenty of just-in-case stuff in a backpack and plenty of text message check-ins during our three hour outing. That was way back in February. This time, with much on their mind, my sister and brother-in-law sent me off with Evan for bath and bedtime then breakfast with little more than “See y’all tomorrow.” I’ve heard parents get more lax after the second child, I just didn’t know it happened within moments of that second child’s arrival.

So, after a bath time that seemed less about cleaning and more about playing with boats in water and the daily “star” board, I proceeded to get tricked by a 3-year-old into reading about 25 Curious George bedtime stories and letting him sleep on the big bed with me. The former was around 10x his normal story hour and the latter involved having a toddler kick you right between the shoulder blades a few times a night and somehow relinquishing all but a slim edge of a bed to him. Then, an early rising from which he emerged seeming to have slept soundly despite the need to rotate stomach-to-back and head-to-toe multiple times, we had morning selfie session. All just a gentle reminder why I didn’t have my own mini-me or two.

I shall remain Auntie Awesome, thank you very much.

And now, offered for the edifice of my nephews, a montage of Auntie Awesome moments or as my nephew Dylan says “Boring Aunt Kimi” moments. I don’t think his vocabulary is very strong. He clearly doesn’t know the difference between boring and awesome. When will I have a niece?

Auntie Awesome playing keep the phone away from the Tornadoes.

Fighting Pancreatic Cancer with Auntie Awesome.

More keep away from the Tornadoes.

Yep, even more keep away from Tornadoes (there is also video).

Selfies with Auntie Awesome’s phone.

Marching and protesting in style with Auntie Awesome.

Looking cool on the subway with Daddy (tired Daddy?).

After a day of Awesomeness with Auntie Awesome.

Off to fight fires with Auntie Awesome.

Breakfast with Auntie Awesome.

Auntie Awesome is the best babysitter.

Chillin’ in the park, awesome-style.

Happy cooking and being boring.