Visitors

My brother Tabor, his amiable wife Katie and their daughter, Baby Olivia are here visiting. (I've taken no pictures and will try to repent.)

I think Baby Olivia will always be Baby Olivia in my mind...even when she's 25. There are a lot of Olivias in our family (and obviously all beloved since we keep re purposing the name).

There's my great-grandmother who was named Olivia. There's Aunt Olivia (my dad's sister). There's my sister Olivia (The Olivia in my book) and now baby Olivia.

Having Tabor here is completely comfortable. Only my cheeks hurt from laughing so much. Like any good sibling, he knows me. From beginning to end. Well, being 8 years younger some stuff does predate him...like I had to first show him a Lawrence Welk clip on youtube so he could appreciate this little comedic gem.

Yesterday morning we spent our time lounging around and playing with Baby Olivia. She delights our kids. She delights me too. Maybe it's because she reminds me more of my kids at that age (she's one) than any other babies I've been around.

Tabor went out in the woods with Braeden and Mark to check out some of the boy hot spots.

He's an uncle like that.

When Emma pulled out her alarmingly large store of stuffed animals and proceeded to tell us each by name, I said (in a forced meant-to-be-sweet tone), "Emma, maybe no one cares about your stuffed animals' names."

Tabor said, "I'm trying to care."

He's an uncle like that.

So Emma continued,"This is Smoky, this is...."

We went to La Conner to see the sights. (Here's a tip for the reader: Mark in tiny shops full of breakables isn't a recommended enjoyable activity.)

We found the store where Conner, one of our Christmas bears came from. We soon had three swooning children on our hands (or at least two...I'm not sure if Braeden swoons anymore) when they saw the collection of Webkinz. They each quickly located a must have. Mark said, referring to the spotted leopard he was clutching, "He wants me. I didn't find him...he found me."

Against my protestations, Tabor bought them each a stuffed animal.

He's an uncle like that.

He also promised me he'd never buy them anything else for the rest of their lives. I reminded my children of his promise the next shop we entered.

"Don't break anything because Tabor isn't going to buy you anything else..."

I was very disciplined in my shopping until we hit a small book store. (What is it about small book stores that are so alluring? What is it about enormous book stores that are so alluring?) Even though I know full well I could get the books cheaper on Amazon.com, even though I know my book shelves are already full, I weakened and made a few purchases.

One of them was for Baby Olivia so it doesn't count.

On the drive home we stopped at the Outlet Mall. Mostly because my kids don't fit into the tiny togs at The Children's Place and Carter's and Osh Kosh and Baby Olivia does. I was trying to live vicariously.

In one store, the clerk asked me if the sweet baby was mine. I said "No, she's my niece." I don't get to hang out with my nieces in stores so I really liked the sound of it.

After dinner I gave Tabor a big piece of yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It's his favorite.

I'm a sister like that.