A definition of courage

I'm really noticing that I really love being an aunt-and I especially love to hear my nephews and nieces call me "Aunt Amy". Short soapbox: I think it's so important for kids to call their aunts and uncles "aunt or uncle". It reminds the adults of the relationship they have to the child and reminds our kids where everyone fits in the whole family scheme of things.

Anyways, I love all these kids that I'm related to and I love feeling (hoping?) that I can have a positive impact on their lives. One of my nephews, Sam, is a fun, good, handsome kid and I have always liked how he will come and tell me all about all sorts of things.

For the last little while, I haven't consciously noticed how long, this little guy hasn't gone out of his way to talk to me anymore. So, I would start a conversation with him but he would seem preoccupied and take off fairly quickly.

Well his mother, Shawn's sister, Kristi, just had her third little boy and sixth child, on Sunday afternoon. (He is very cute and very tiny.) Today we had Sam and his little brother Isaac over to play. I had picked up Isaac earlier in the day, but Sam is in Kindergarten so we picked him up from there. He seemed really excited to come over, but soon after he got into the car I could tell that something was on his mind. I had stopped off at a car wash before heading home, and I asked him what he was thinking about. He said, "My mom told me that you turn into a witch at night. Do you really?"A light bulb went on in my head-I had blogged about that recently and figured Kristi had read about it and told her kids. I explained to him that I didn't really turn into a witch - I just get so cranky after 8:00 when my kids still aren't in bed that I feel like one!" A light bulb turned on in his head too, his eyes lit up and he said, "Oh, I get it! You just tell your kids you turn into a witch so that they'll go to bed?" Nolan was in the very back seat, so I just held my finger up to my lips and said, "shhh!!!" He thought it was a great joke. I could tell that it was a big deal to him because he talked about it all the way home-about a fifteen minute drive. He sure seemed a lot more relaxed about things!:)

So there you go. That is a pretty brave kid to go to someone's house that you knew could turn into a real, live, witch! Maybe he felt safe as long as he wasn't here at 8:00...