As many know I do not have a kid, and I am not married. I am busy... always working on one project or another, and no girl friend thus far likes me enough to put up with my crazy life. So, with that said I do love my Brothers kids. I have 2 older brothers and 1 younger. My younger brothers wife had a kid last November and for months (exactly 6 months) I have refused to hold her. Sighting my own rules about not touching children until they are old enough to survive being dropped 5 feet. Which in my estimation is 6 months.
Last month I picked "Emma" up for the first time. I grabbed her just under her arms and held her up with my arms stretched out. She starred at me as though I was another weird person with no relation and I picked her up as though she was a dirty piece of laundry. After picking her up, both of us starred at each other for 30 seconds. For some reason I was reminded of a episode of "Are you being served" a Brit comedy from the 70's. In one episode they had a funny kids toy called a "Obbley Wobbly." Well at that moment I thought, my niece would make a good "Obbley Wobbly" so with a little bit of tilt one way and the other my nieces legs and waist swayed from side to side. I got the biggest smile and laugh out of her and I got a good chuckle.
Emma and I get along pretty good. This morning was our Herring Family Carnival, I spent a good 30 minutes playing with her. Later in the afternoon was the Part 2 of the Carnival, the traditional auction. Grandma Herring makes a limited number of quilts each year to be auctioned off. The first quilt to be auctioned was a baby quilt. Emma was wrapped in it for some reason, and for some even stranger reason I felt compelled to buy that quilt for Emma... I couldn't even see what the quilt looked like from the distance I was sitting. I knew that my brother couldn't afford it. So I bid and I got lucky, usually the bidding for one of Grandma's quilts at the Auction easily goes for $200+ . I was able to pick this very nice, "Very Cute" (my sister in-laws words) quilt up for quite a good deal... $50. I still can't figure out how I got it for that price!
After the action was over my sister in law brought Emma wrapped in her new quilt over to me. Emma had a smile bigger then life and looked like a doll from Toys R Us. She immediately wanted me to hold her and clung to me like she hasn't ever done before. It was like she knew I payed good American money for that new blanket. I must say it was a very nice quilt. But as I was done holding her and handing her back to her mother I was reminded of how nice it is to be able to hand kids back over to their parents after the fun is over. ;)
