I confused the days, thought that the following took place from Friday on Saturday, but I hope that it counts as a weekend post anyways ;<)
Let me introduce you to my 7 and a half year old niece, Yumi, a powerful girl with whom I have an extremely strong connection. Not just because she is awesome or because she is the daughter of my twin sister and we have been living in the same area of Portugal for 5 years now, but also because I have spent loads of time with her, since her birth and I have changed her diapers, brought her to daycare and picked her up again, soothed her when she was sad, laughed with her and spoon-fed her on word jokes, read her bedtime stories, taught her about life and, at least at important, we have played and created a lot, together. Although she has a father, I am ( sadly enough) probably the most important man in her life, she often used to call me mom or dad.
Yumi took this pic of herself when I thought she was photographing me :<)
Thursday afternoon, up till Friday evening, she stayed at my place, alone. Or, to rephrase that, she spent the night (t)here but most of the time the two of us spent outdoors, as it's seriously Summer here and the park and local river beach are both at a walking distance. Also, my current apartment has no balcony ( nor a garden ) and - aside from spending the night there - I try to be outdoors and close to the water as much as possible, these all days.
Thursday afternoon, I joined my twin sister and my niece at the river beach and, after a while, my twin sister went to pick up my nephew to come for a quick swim after his tutoring. When he arrived - and especially an hour or so later, when we split up ( he went home with his mom and I went towards my house with my niece ) - it was clear to me that my nephew struggled with the fact that his sister had won the 'grand prize': me.
If you've been following me for a while, you are probably aware of the fact that I have a 9 year old nephew too, here in Portugal - Yumi's big(ger) brother. Usually, the two of them stay at my place together but - this time - I asked my twin sister if I could, for a change, have one of them over. Not just because it makes a huge difference, energy wise, but also because my niece and nephew had been asking for this, for a while, themselves.
At first, the plan was for my nephew to have a sleepover here, but then my niece started to protest and - it being something she's very good at - she won. He main argument was the fact that my nephew spent a night at my place, alone, two months ago ( when she was having a sleepover someplace else ). A solid argument
He is two years older, though, and managed to kind of hide his emotions ( not sure if that is a good thing - see my previous post for that - but I was proud of him anyway and I told him that ).
Next time, possibly in a couple of days, it's his turn to spend some precious one-on-one time with his super uncle.
Yumi drew me. If you clook closely, you see I hold the drawing and she photographs it. She also drew the shorts that I was wearing.
Funny enough, she forgot to add ears. I told her she had forgotten a prominent part of me and then she ended up drawing me with huge ears that make me look like a mixture between a field mouse and a character from Avatar. It's cute though.
And here's two pictures taken Thursday night, just after the previously shown close up that Yumi took of herself.
We had decided to go on an evening walk and she and I were enjoying a yogurt with fruit-dessert with some added wild blackberries that we had plucked, minutes earlier.
I decided that we should eat our dessert, sitting on top of a picknick table, in a small garden located next to a little chapel.
We later washed our spoons and the yogurt cups in the nearby stream, before disposing of them in a trash bin.
After our walk we went to the park and played with the volleyball, together with a 9 year old Portugese girl who was camp(ervann)ing in town, with her parents, that night.
I could make this a way longer post but suffice to say that my niece and I enjoyed our time together and that she also played with plenty of other kids, especially Friday afternoon, at the river beach.
Believe it or not, but I am regularly called super uncle and not by my niece and nephew but by others ( adults ). Almost all kids seem to like me, probably because I actually play with them, most of the time.
In all honesty, it helps not to have kids of my own ;>)
Let me ( almost ) end this write up with a picture that my twin sister took of me, on Friday night, when I was about to walk home, after the day and a half with my niece and after having had dinner together, consisting of batatas fritas e caracóis ( French fries and snails ) at the river beach restaurant.
My twister immediately shared the photo in the family Whatsapp ( that also includes my younger brother and sister and my mom ) with the following text ( or something along those lines ):
Vincent's excuse for wearing his shirt like this was that people would think that he wasn't wearing pants if he didn't ).
And yes, that's literally what I said, as the shirt is pretty long and the swimming trunks that I was wearing that day are short and also blue haha!
My twin sister told me to untuck my shirt, that it looked fine and not like I was half naked and so I did and then I walked home.
Anyhow, that's how we roll in our family! We say what we think and we ( try to ) make a lot of jokes!
To Be Convinued...
Be on the lookout for a post about my awesome nephew, Miko...
Oh and if you liked this write up, you will probably also enjoy reading my previous 'Diarrhea of a Creative' posts. Here they are, from latest to oldest:
Celebrating not so small victories - I Sold 5 Books This Week
Did God Create Dinos?
We Created Monsters
A fresh Hypersensitivosaurus and MM Wolf Story
Scheduling Time for Creativity
Hiking to my former house and reading my book - as a bedtime story - to my former neighbors' twin sons
All Work and Ño Clay
Play with Clay