my auntie pinky fear

i am the proud aunt of 5 nephews and 2 nieces spread among my two brothers and their wives.  (i hasten to add each brother has only one wife.)

i called big lug's home yesterday.  his 8 year old daughter answered the phone.  we had a brief conversation as i tried to learn a couple of details about her day.  she likes swimming the breast stroke on her swim team and didn't really learn anything at school that day.  after about 4 minutes she asked me if i wanted to talk to her dad, which i admitted was the reason for my phone call.  so she handed off the phone to big lug so we could talk about the meat of my request of him.

as we started to chit chat i could hear the background, "i want to talk to aunt pinkie!  i want to talk to aunt pinkie!"  soon enough big lug's 3 year old turning 25 years old youngest child got on the phone.  we chatted about the fact she was too young to play wii with her brothers so instead she sat on the couch and watched.  i asked where her mom was to be told she was at a meeting.  we ended our conversation with a quick "i love you" and then big lug and i resumed our conversation.

i'm heading to utah on thursday where 3 of my 5 nephews reside.  i asked sunshine to start showing my picture to her two youngest who are 3 years old and 13 months old so when i arrived the time it takes for them to be comfortable around me would be decreased.  (i wasn't worried about her oldest being happy to see me.  we have formed a strong aunt and nephew bond.)  sunshine texted me the following about her middle son's reaction when told that i was coming to visit.

 

i have this irrational fear that my nephews and nieces don't know who i am because i see them so irregularily, especially big lug and liver's kids.  thankfully big lug assured me at the end of our conversation yesterday that i am known and loved by all of my nephews and nieces.  i'm sure it doesn't hurt that i tend to buy them things often and send birthday and christmas money that would allow them to buy lots and lots of gumballs if they chose...