Lambs and chocolate

Earlier this week I had the chance to put a little perspective back in my life. My 4 year old niece lives up north and I spent 4 days with her. I love spending time with her for a lot of reasons - of course I love her, but it's more than that. She's smart (I know everyone says that about the kids in their lives) and she's a blast. She's a comedian without meaning to be, gentle and a lot of fun. Also, thanks to Charlie and Lola, she now speaks with a little bit of a British accent.


In her world I am a really important person. It feels good to be held in such high esteem by anyone and her NiNi, that's me, is what my Dad would call "the bee's knees." I provide her with Andes mints. Not the hottest commodity in the adult world, but it's the one thing she always requests from me so of course, I always provide them. She's also addicted to stuffed animals. Any type will do, but she has a special affinity for lambs. So on this visit, I brought the lamb and the mints.

This process all takes a lot more planning than your would think. I have to make sure that I have a few small surprises planned for each day of my trip. Anything will do. This year, in addition to the lamb and the mints, she got some Mardi Gras beads, a couple of little bracelets and a small pink purse that I caught from a float.

I like the subtle way she lets me know which surprises are keepers and which aren't. I gave her a small pile of beads and she sorted through them letting me know which ones it was okay to bring back to Louisiana with me. I can take a hint.

On Wednesday it was hard to say goodbye. It's been tough leaving her since the first time I met her as a tiny little person, but it's harder now because she feels the loss as much as I do. She cried on the way to the airport which makes it that much harder for me to hang on to my own tears. At one point she told me "I can't talk to you right now because when I do it makes the tears come out." That was really tough.

I miss her already. She's my little sweet pea and I'm proud to be her NiNi.