Not so recently I sprained my wrist and my niece, Sarah, wanted to know how it happened. As always she asked me over dinner and this is the conversation that followed:

me: I was wrestling a giant bunny rabbit!
sarah: For reals?
me: No... Aunty likes to make up stories. But if Aunty Jenny were really wrestling a giant bunny who would win?
sarah: Hmmm.... I think maybe it would be a tie.
me: Oh.
sarah: But if it were the Easter Bunny, the Easter Bunny would win!
me: ...

Happy Easter!

Earlier this month Sarah had already whispered what she wanted into Santa's ear. (My brother took both Sarah and Katsumi to one of the many mall Santas and it's a good thing Uncle Matt wasn't around because I almost always have to restrain him from shouting, "Fake Santa!") A few nights ago when my brother showed me a letter addressed to Santa from Sarah I was intrigued. Because she always tells Santa what she wants, she has never written to him. As I was opening the letter my brother said she did it all on her own and he only got it because she asked him to mail it. The letter read:

Dear Santa,

Carrots wants
lettuce leaves
for christmas.

From, Sarah

My heart nearly melted. You can bet on christmas morning Sarah will be happy that Santa got her letter and Carrots will be happy stuffing herself silly with lettuce. (And yes I already have a stocking for the rabbit, but I was gonna fill it with rabbit treats as opposed to a head of lettuce.)

In case I don't post again until the new year: Happy Holidays Everyone.

I'm trying to recruit minions into my ninja bunny army. Sarah has offered up all her stuffed bunnies to join and my nephew has clutched his favorite bunny to himself dearly and has firmly said "No!" Matt just kind of looked at me funny when I asked him to be a henchman.

As always this started at the dinner table with Sarah asking a question. She asked where I came from. (She had just asked her Daddy where she came from and he told her that she came from her mommy.) I told her I came from a bunny planet and it was my secret mission to build a ninja bunny army here on this planet.

Well, not so secret mission anymore :)

My niece has a real bunny, a white netherland dwarf rabbit to be exact, which she has named Carrots.

me: Carrots?
brother: Yeah, Carrots.
me: Ah.
brother: You really dodged a bullet there, eh.
me: *nodding*

(If you haven't read the 11/23/2006 entry, you should read it now to understand this entry.)

Katsumi, my two year old nephew, has a selective vocabulary. Recently he's started using the words "Unc" (for uncle) and "Matt." Guess whose name he doesn't say :(

He'll point a pictures of Matt or at Matt and say "Unc!" I pleadingly ask him to say Aunty. This sometimes results in him studying my face and handing me a stuff animal to console myself with. So I sit on the couch with Tigger and wonder how Matt managed both my brother's kids to say Uncle before Aunty.

I swear Matt's hiding treats in his pockets or something... Someone has to tell my brother to have more kids, so I can even out the score.

After thanksgiving dinner, I sat down with my niece, Sarah, to draw pictures. We drew different animals: elephants, giraffes, ostriches, and bunnies wearing stripey shirts. When Sarah drew her bunny, she drew a thought bubble over its head and asked me what bunnies think about.

Me: Carrots?
Sarah: No... Money!
Me: Um..
Matt: That's your fault you know.

A couple of visits back, we drew pictures together (as we often do). She drew me a picture of home with everyone next to it. I drew her a picture of a bunny in a carrot-mobile zooming through the desert on the way to Las Vegas with dreams of jackpot wins in his head. (Yup, a thought bubble of a slot machine and money.)

Matt thinks I should edit myself down more when I'm around the kids. I think that means drawing flowers and hearts, instead of a giant mutant bunny roaming the city after a nuclear power plant meltdown. My brother and sister-in-law are more amused than anything else. If my brother asked, I would stop and color inside of the lines instead of drawing tiny people fleeing away from the alligator in her coloring book.

I often forget that I have an influence on her, even in the details of a drawing. Matt has doubts whether that is a postive influence or not, but little does he know that I'm biding my time until I can teach her more practical things, like playing poker. :)

Not that long ago I had dinner at my parents' house with my brother and his family. My niece, Sarah, asked what they were going to have for dinner the next night. My brother answered, "chicken." Sarah, not satisfied, asked "what kind of chicken?" Instead of answering, my brother sat there with a look of a person who has been asked "why?" a million times, so I chimed in "space chickens." My brother then shot me a look that said if his kids ever need therapy then I'm footing the bill. I explained to her that even space chickens are bad at flying so they fall out of the sky a lot and have to live with regular chickens. They're extra tasty, so you're lucky if you get to eat one.

My niece smiled and said wistfully, "I don't have a spacesuit, so I can't go into space." Yeah, me too.