In Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence People he says the most pleasant sound in any language is somebody else saying your name. Oh how true that is. I am 42. Never married. No children. To be honest I've never really liked children much.
Then my brother and his wife had Katie Lauren almost three years ago. As an infant I didn't even want to hold her, I was afraid I'd "break" her. But her mother pushed me to get involved. So I did and boy am I glad I did. I have a relationship with her that is about as close as I think you can have and not be one of her parents.
In fact, and she is a smart kid, anytime a holiday is coming up and she can see everybody planning for it she starts asking, "Where is Uncle Tommy?" All day. For days at a time. I am blessed with a lot of "cool" things in my life, but IMHO that is by far the coolest.
Below the fold some family holiday pics.
Oh before I start, can I suggest some music to accompany this Diary. The Blues Travelers Optimistic Thought. If you've not heard anything they did in the early 90s, I strongly suggest giving this a spin.
Now onto the photos. Enjoy!
This is Katie Lauren. She will be 3 February of 2012.
Me and Katie waiting for the OK from the parents to start opening presents on Christmas morning. Wait, did I just post a picture of myself in PJs on the intertubes :)?
Katie with her "concerned" look cause she still is being told to wait. Got to like those Elmo PJs.
Katie opening her first dollhouse. When I asked her what is asked Santa for she said a dollhouse and a Barney book. The kid sure knows what she wants.
My brother Jeff trying to get her attention to explain this is the EXACT dollhouse she wanted as she goes to open something else.
Now a pootie/woozle interlude cause that is how my family rolls.
Cyrus totally indifferent to us as he basks in the sun.
Murphy with one of his gifts, which he ripped apart in about 10 minutes. As my brother said, "Indestructible my ass. The only thing indestructible for that dog is called steel!"
Katie somewhat confused that other people actually had gifts to open and she was asked to wait a second before she opened something else.
Taking a break. I guess opening all those presents is hard work. Getting some soy milk. Her parents are nothing close to vegans, but she refuses (no idea where she got this) to drink what she calls "cow milk" (I swear I am not making that up).
Myself, Katie, and her mother attempting to open all the other boxes for her dollhouse. I swear those things are a little over-packaged.
Me pondering that there was like 5 times more stuff that was supposed to "fit" into the dollhouse that would ever fit. We have no photo evidence but I played dollhouse with her for the next three hours or so. At one point we even had a tea party (glad there is no photo evidence of that BTW).
Maybe my FAVORITE pic of the entire weekend. Me, Katie's mom, and of course Katie dressed up for family pics. Gosh she is cute isn't she. I mean Katie and not her mom :).
One last pic. I often mention here I am a geek/nerd. I now have photo evidence. I didn't ask for this, but my parents actually got me a Star Wars AT-AT walker they found at a flea market.
Well that is it. Hope you enjoyed. Also hope you had a wonderful holiday as well. Peace!