Fourteen

A weird way to open a Birthday blessing, but COPE. RantWoman is clear that there is value in sharing experiences but RantWoman has an odd confientiality request: RantWoman considers it a great act of Divine Mercy that RantWoman, RantMom and Little Sister and her family are all attached to different faith communities, but many in RantWoman's Meeting know members of the Rant family. And if Quakers had prayer chains there would be some HIPAA Meets the Prayer Chain tangles possible too. 

Little Sister sometimes is quite happy to tell the whole bus her life, never mind whether she is telling anyone else's life too. Other times Little Sister is into "shut up." And RantWoman is sometimes called to be confrontational about "Shut up." Anyway, this post contains references albeit oblique to a number of sensitive topics. RantWoman's request of those who know the Rant Family: RantWoman really needs space for her own STUFF. If any of these topics come up in conversation from the RantFamily side, they are fair game. And of course they are fair game if only RantWoman is present. Otherwise, ....

FOURTEEN.
Irrpressible Nephew turns FOURTEEN today. He will have a SLEEPOVER with some other veterans of the Middle School Nerf Wars from his church.

He already has size 15 feet.

He outgrew all his adults except maybe his Uncle RantBrother last summer. Now RantWoman no longer gets to pick him up on her shoulders and make Tall Nephew while he touches the ceiling. If he wants to touch the ceiling he has to be Tall Nephew on his own.
The other night when RantWoman visited, there was a new booming voice. His mother invited RantWoman to inspect ARMPIT HAIR. RantWoman does not mind missing out due to RantWoman visual fog.

RantWoman remembers:
--"nephew" in the blog search bar will yield an assortment of reflections.

--The first RantWoman diaper change in the hospital, and something about a diaper upside down. RantWoman has NO idea how that occurred.
--The commute bus change timing that earned RantWoman the title Auntie Poopsie for quite awhile when Nephew was an infant.

--A car conversation with Nephew strapped in the car seat in back and RantWoman buckled up in front that RantWoman has never mentioned to Little Sister but that RantWoman is pretty clear refers to a matter that Irrepressible Nephew told all his otehr adults about too. Little Sister had already done everything reasonable about the immediate topic Hold that point in the Light because various freight trains of other associations could rumble through.

--For awhile RantWoman sometimes picked Nephew up from daycare. One time when he was maybe 3 or 4 grocery shopping was on the agenda. We came home with lemons to make real lemonade. RantWoman originally planned to cut and squeeze the lemons herself. Irrepressible Nephew was very insistent about Helping. RantWoman decided it would actually be easier to teach him to use a knife safely than to keep fighting him about not doing it. As a result, he quickly lost interest and left the cutting to RantWoman

--Irrepressible Nephew inherited from his dad an anatomical oops that made it take longer than average to toilet train (Shhhh?) RantWoman would take Nephew to the partk and not spot a restroom. Sometimes Nephew would leak urgently. Some mothers were horrified. RantWoman BLESSES the cool mothers who would shrug as if to say "It's just toddler pee, nothing we haven't got gallons of at our house too." RantWoman also blesses some very wise practices in Irrepressible Nephew's early school years related to this topic.

--And by the way RantWoman blesses some of Irrepressible Nephew's teachers in middle school for wonderful presence in his life.

--RantWoman remembers various long walks, one when Little Sister was in the hospital for something or other and RantWoman decided we had just missed the bus but we should walk because we needed to be glad we can. RantWoman remembers a hard squeeze from Nephew's hand too. Another time Rantwoman and Nephew went for a very long walk in a West Seattle park without any kind of communication device. Little Sister survived this but barely.

--Another time, RantWoman and Irrepressible Nephew needed to go from RantMom's to another of Little sister's battles with physics, this one related for once to something external: a car had cut off the  bus and Little Sister was one of several passengers badly thrown around. This event also required RantMom and Nephew's Dad to stretch past the limits of whatever language they have in common. Nephew's comment was "Grandma's freaking out." Umm, yeah.

--One year Bad Auntie was fussing about gift options. RantWoman was in the produce aisle. RantWoman loves pomegranates and thought a pomegranate would be a lot of fun. It was. A couple more years running, Worse Auntie decided to heck with pomegranate splatters on the apartment rug and got the kid more pomegranates.

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY and ¡Felíz Cumpleaños! to Irrepressible Nephew!