Happy Birthday(s)

My BD was two weekends ago, my sister's BD was last Friday. She and her clan, and I and my wife, met up at our parents' house for some fun.

My sister has three of the cutest kids in the world. :)

Youngest Nephew (2 years old)

While the big kids played in the larger swimming pool, he only wanted to be in the hot tub. Even then, he was scared of the "deep" area in the middle. As long as he could wander around the side of the tub, he was as happy as could be.

My sister gave him a small inner-tube. She was hoping that he'd float around in it, but he didn't want to have anything to do with it. He didn't even like it being in the hot tub with him... he kept pointing at it and saying, "Ow-oot! Ow-oot!"

Over in the larger pool, Niece and older Nephew heard the commotion. "We wanna see!" "You've seen him when he's unhappy before," I explained. "Oh," they agreed, and then got back into the pool.

Niece (6 years old)

Niece ran up to me early in the festivities and said, "Hey Uncle Jeff, pull my finger!". This was, to say the least, unexpected. I recovered and said, "I don't think I should do that." "C'mon Uncle Jeff, pull my finger!" I pushed on it instead. "That's not right! *Pull* it!" This went on for some time.

Later, when we opened presents, I got a pretty racy card from my sister. Absolutely hilarious, and very much not kiddo-friendly. Niece plopped down right in front of me. "Uncle Jeff, read me your card."

"Happy Birthday," I said, pretending to read. "Have a great birthday, and by the way ... no matter what, don't pull on Niece's finger."

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. "It does *NOT* say that!" It was impressive. She managed to include shock, amusement, and denial all into one facial expression.

Oldest Nephew (8 years old)

Oldest Nephew is into something called "Funkeys". They are USB toys, and apparently are part of some online game. The more Funkeys you have, the more parts of the game you can play.

Nephew told everybody, "I just got a download, and now I'm at 2.0. I was at 1.8, but now I'm upgraded."

He got blank stares from everybody, but I knew what he meant. I love that boy. :)