1. i crossed 'see coldplay live' off my bucket list. i totally geeked out and bought a concert tee and an overpriced program 'book' for marcus and got to spend the night in the best company to make it even better. i am still smiling. seriously. right now.
2. marcus survived his first ever food poisoning/stomach virus/barfageddon 2012. the great news is there was no fever. no getting sick out of his little butt. just barfageddon 2012 and he was back to 100% by noon the next day.
3. my sister beth and bro-in-law paul and their amazing kids charlotte and james came for their annual canadian summer adventure. they have so many people to see in so little time, but marcus and i just loved our 4 days with them so much. meeting my nephew for the first time? unbelievable. and charlotte [coming up on two in november] has a pint sized scottish accent! are you kidding me? we spent as much of those four days as poss with the smiths along with my local soeur laura, uncle ty ty [who could not be a bigger hit with the kids] and little g-rad. so how do three sisters fare with two husbands, one dog and four kids under three under one roof? between meltdowns, bite-marks, a six-month-pregnant-sister-in-a-heat-wave, food poisoning, jet lag, coordinating naptimes for babies, coordinating naptimes for parents, and enough greek take out to feed a small opolous army, we even managed to take a few photos:
4. the boys wanted a night out. the wives said yes of course. they stumbled home at 3 am so hammered that we gave them credit for getting home at all.
5. the girls wanted a night out. the bro-in-laws said yes of course. we put all four kids to bed and giggled all the way to the superstore to shop at joe fresh and were home an hour later with two bottles of prosecco and 4 [FOURfour.yesfour] big bags of chips because they do not sell beth's faves in the UK and we wanted her to test-drive our pc loaded ketchup and those explose dill doritos. we also bought baby clothes and bamboo bath sponges.
6. it was just so awesome to spend that time with my niece and my nephews. those two-foot-tall-people are just the coolest extensions of their parents. it is really something to see so many kids, so close in age, have such different and strong personalities and to see so many unreal qualities of each of their parents in them. marcus included. i was also dumbfounded by how huge my little guy looks next to charlotte and grady, let alone baby james. he may or may not have told me last night that he missed baby james because he is his favourite baby cousin. don't tell the others ;)
7. we may have taken even more photos:
8. we rode my alimony pony all the way to the local chuck e cheese and were showered with tokens and cheese pizza and salad bar to everyone [espesh uncle paul]'s delight. uncle paul likely took a pocket full of tokens back to edinburgh with him as he was hoarding them all morning and kept sneaking off to play games on his own. so funny. thanks to james for hooking my fam up ;)
9. uncle ty ty was such a hit that i borderline sympathized for him. the kids just adore him and he doesn't miss a single opp to play with them, hold them, watch toons with them ... we are so thankful for uncle ty.
10. special shout out to my six-month-pregnant-in-a-heat-wave soeur for opening the doors to their new digs and letting us all stay over under one roof. that's a lot of people to have in one place and we are lucky that they recently moved into one heck of a house that had room for all of us. even dunstin the dog who happily minded his own business as the kids went buck.
it's always been hard to say goodbye to my sister and paul. thank goodness for technology - we facebook, email, skype - basically do it all to keep in touch outside of teleporting to each other. but now that i also have to say goodbye to charlotte + james? it was a tough drive away from the airport, explaining to marcus why i was crying. to be honest i was upset thinking that when they see me again, the kids won't even remember me. what if next summer baby james doesn't light up when i kiss his neck rolls and pull my hair like it's his job? that's a tall order for a proud + loving aunt. so i was especially thankful for a particular man and his particular support on this as he pointed out that it is totally temporary and as the kids get older, they will surely remember all of the love i offer them during their annual canadian adventure.
until next time fam jam. we miss you THISMUCH already.
love aunty karen + marcus aka 'cuz'
xo
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