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Before I got the dreaded flu, I had the pleasure of spending some quality time hanging out with my niece and nephew and their dad last weekend. I happened to be driving past where they were getting out of the car to enjoy some pizza and joined them for lunch last Saturday and then we had dinner last Saturday. In between, I helped run an errand that involved needing two drivers. Because I'm the coolest uncle in the entire known universe, my nephew decided he wanted to ride back to his house with me. On the way to pick up their car, we'd seen the after affects of a car accident, including the police on the scene with their flashing lights. As we drove back, my nephew wanted to make sure that we went "really fast" so we'd beat Daddy and his sister, but not so fast that we'd "go to jail." I told him that you didn't usually go to jail for going too fast, but you got a ticket. "What's a ticket?" he asked. "It's a piece of a paper that says you broke the law and makes you pay a lot of money," I told him. "Oh, that sounds bad," he said. "Is that worse than jail?" As the conversation continued, he went on to tell me that we was "really cool." I asked him how he knew this. "Becuase all the girls like me," he replied matter-of-factly. Well, it's good that you know that. And from now, I'm keeping him away from those Happy Days re-runs. Labels: family
posted by Michael Hickerson at 3/06/2008 06:09:00 PM |
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I can't believe that my favorite niece is turning six years old today. It seems like just yesterday that my sister was calling me to tell me she was on her way and I was heading to the hospital so I could wait with them for her arrival.
The moment I stepped into the hospital room and saw my sister and brother-in-law, holding this tiny little person is one that I'll never forget.
And now, she's turning six.
In the past year, we've gone from my reading book to her at bedtime, to her wanting to read to me--and her being able to do it. I had a lot of fun this year, travelling down memory lane as I picked out a couple of "big girl" books as party of her birthday present. (She loves the Junie B. Jones books, but buying one for her is liking buying Doctor Who stuff for me--it's hard to know which ones she has). So, I bought her two of my favorites that I read when I was her age--the first two Ramona books. I hope she enjoys them as much as I did. I read them a lot growing up, the point that I think I can probably still recite some of my favorite portions of the books.
Last night, she was very concerned about what would happen if there was a snow day today and her taking cupcakes to school. Luckily, the promise that they could keep until Thursday put this worry to rest.
Happy b'day to my favorite niece. I know you don't read this blog and I know I've told you happy b'day at least four times in the past couple of days, but I never get tired of celebrating you being a special part of my family.Labels: family
posted by Michael Hickerson at 2/27/2008 12:41:00 PM |
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My niece and nephew went to the circus last weekend. They were telling me about the circus last night and all the animals and acts they saw under the big top.
I asked my nephew is he was going to be in the circus someday as a lion tamer or some other cool circus-related job. He shook his head.
"So what do you want to be when you grow up?" I asked him.
"I am going to be a superhero," he replied.
"Which one do you want to be?" I asked.
"One of three," he said, holding up three fingers. "But I think I'm going to be Superman."
Now, as a Spider-Man fan, I have to admit to being a little disappointed in myself for not sharing enough of my love of the world's greatest superhero, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. I consider this a challenge to myself to help him understand just why Spidey is much cooler than any other superhero around.
Of course, I also wondered if Superman retired and how one went about applying for the job. And I guess that someday when he does get the job as Superman, I will be in trouble for this blog post. I fully expect to be taken hostage by Lex Luthor as part of some evil genius plot to defeat Superman. But I'm not worried...with my nephew as Superman, there is no way Lex will succeed.Labels: family
posted by Michael Hickerson at 1/31/2008 07:26:00 PM |
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I'm in this very calm, Zen-like state about seeing Spider-Man 3 tomorrow. Because no matter what the critics say, this is my favorite super-hero of all-time on the big screen and I'm going to enjoy every last second of the film.
I discovered Spider-Man like a lot of my generation probably did--on the Electric Company. Spidey had adventures as part of the show where all his dialogue was presented on screen in balloons. Of course, the secret agenda was to encourage children to learn how to read and let me tell you--it was quite an incentive. I remember I watched a few times with my dad and he'd read the balloons to me but I also recall feeling this intense desire to be able to read the words for myself.
I remember my dad bringing me home one of my first Spider-Man comics soon after I discovered him on the Electric Company and us reading it together. (It's long since gone and I'm sure would be worth a good sum if I'd kept it in mint condition, but you know, the memories of enjoying it are beyond a price tag...)
I was hooked. I soon discovered Spider-Man had his own cartoon and I eagerly watched it. It's the famous one of the 60s with one of the greatest theme songs to ever hit the Saturday morning airwaves.
At some point, the obsession spilled over into all aspects of my life to the point that when I'd go places with my mom, I'd be making up stories with me as Spider-Man in my head. I even took at as far as "shooting" webs at people by getting my hands into the web-slinging position and making a "thwipping" sound. Thankfully, I grew out of this (just last week!) phase, though I'm sure my mom was ready for it to be over sooner rather than later.
Which leads me to the other night...I met my sister and her family for dinner. While eating, my nephew began to make the infamous Spidey shoots the web hands and point them at people. My sister asked if he was shooting his Spider-Man webs and he nodded.
First of all, I swear I never taught this trick, though I wish I had. Second of all, I have to admit deep down, I thought it was pretty cool of him to do.
The traditions of one generation passed on to the next....Labels: family, spider-man 3
posted by Michael Hickerson at 5/03/2007 10:41:00 AM |
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Five years ago today, my family changed forever.
I was sitting at my desk at work when I got a call from my sister.
"The baby is on the way," she said, calmly. She and my brother-in-law were headed home to grab all the baby-stuff and then heading over to Knoxville. They were adopting a baby girl and the birth-mother had gone into labor.
I recall my sister saying, "We're going to have a baby," with a tinge of excitment and joy in her voice.
She told me they'd call me with updates and when they got closer. And that they wanted me to come and keep them company in the waiting area of the hospital. I was honored and said I'd see them in a few hours. I also asked for calls to update me on the progress of things.
I got a call an hour or so later. Things were taking a bit longer than expected, so I didn't have to hurry. Go home, eat dinner, swim some laps and then meet them at the hospital. It could be some time before my niece arrived.
I swam but honestly, my heart wasn't in it. I kept wondering if I was missing something important...what if my neice came right then, in the middle of a lap and I missed the call?
I did have to go home and grab the digital camera. An uncle has to be prepared, right?
Luckily that didn't happen. I arrived at the hospital to find a waiting room full of family and friends. We sat together, passing the time, talking and catching up, listening as if we could somehow hear the baby's first cries. After a few hours, a nurse came down and took my sister and brother-in-law up to a room. The baby had arrived, everything was fine and they wanted to give them some time to meet her. They were escorted away and we were all left to wait. It was late, but I don't think sleep was on anyone's mind.
After about an hour, the nurse came down again and said they were ready for the family to come up and see the baby. I took a deep breath (I am not a fan of hospitals, but surprisingly this visit wasn't bugging me....) and we went up to a room. The door opened and I walked in...and saw my sister holding a baby.
I took a mental picture of that moment. There was my sister, my baby sister, holding a baby. You could see the instant bonding of mother and child happening and I thought, "Wow, my baby sister has a baby..." I looked over at my brother in law and saw the same sense of wonder, awe and instant love as he looked at this tiny person who would radically and forever change their lives...and the live of our entire family.
I stayed about an hour with them. I took tons of pictures of my neice's first hours of life. I wanted to hold her but I didn't want to intrude on my sister and brother-in-law's first few hours with G. After a while, the adrenaline wore off and I felt sleepiness settling in. I excused myself, went home and crashed...
The next day, I woke up at my regular time (stupid internal alarm clock!). I went into work for a half-day, most of it spent uploading pictures of my neice to my Yahoo! photos account to send to family and friends. I went back that afternoon to see everyone and got to hold my neice for the first time . She was so quiet and so tiny...but the second I held her, it was too late. I was wrapped around her little finger...I'd do literally anything for her.
That was five years ago. I can't believe that G is turning five years old today. It seems like just yesterday, I was meeting her for the first time and I've turned around twice and now she's five. I blink twice and she'll be driving if I'm not careful.
So, happy birthday to my neice, G. Thank you for making me an uncle (again...I am Uncle Michael to my best friend's children...which is an absolute honor).Labels: birthday, family
posted by Michael Hickerson at 2/27/2007 09:43:00 AM |
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Over the weekend, I was able to finish up the Christmas shopping (thanks to all of you who offered suggestions. They were appreciated more than I can say and I may be coming back to you in a few weeks when my neice's b'day rolls around at the end of February), which I have to admit was quite a relief. In the good news catagory, I found Willy Wonka at Best Buy and thanks to my reward zone card, I had a ten dollar off gift certificate. So, I found what I was looking for and the price was great--how can you go wrong?
The thing with kids their age is they don't know or care how much you spent on their presents. But you have to make sure that if the niece gets three, then the nephew has three. It's all about similar quantities of presents.
With the shopping done, I turned to planning for the big day. My sister e-mailed me to co-ordinate Christmas breakfast and revealed the new way they're helping keep the kids behaving. Seems St Nick has a free phone number you can call and the message changes daily. So, this has become the new way to get the kids to behave--threatening to not let them call Santa. And apparently it goes even farther that if they're really being "naughty" then the threat is they'll call up Santa and rat the kids out. Which you know, I've got to admit seems kind of mean. Of course, I could just ruin the whole gig by going over there and telling them that while Santa may cut them off, there is no way Uncle Michael would and he can make up the present difference should Santa not come through....
I don't need food during the months of January and Febrary, right?Labels: Christmas, family
posted by Michael Hickerson at 12/19/2006 09:42:00 AM |
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