Anything for the kids

I spent this past weekend on my aunt and uncle’s ranch, hanging out with family. Other than being the HOTTEST WEEKEND OF ALL TIME, it was a lot of fun, mainly because these two were buzzing around:


The town is near College Station, so I got to revisit the old familiar two-lane highways of my college career. You almost forget that you expect everything to look the same until it doesn’t; a new Shell station in Bremond was so out of place to me that I almost cruised right through their speed traps without even letting off the gas.

Back to the little ones, who were my real reason for making the trip. They belong to my mom’s cousin, who brought them down from San Francisco for a long weekend to play in Texas. I had never met them (KB, the girl, is almost five and LB, the boy just turned three), but was determined to win their favor. I was never really into baby-sitting as a teenager, I preferred the more lucrative and less-risky business of lemonade stands with my friend RW, but these kids were just adorable.

For one thing, they weren’t only visiting Texas, but a ranch in Texas, meaning they got to meet horses, cows, goats, kittens, dogs and mosquitoes up close and personal. They were really into riding around in the golf cart, learning how to rope and playing an altered version of bowling that involved a squishy green soccer ball and a hardback novel.


Being from San Francisco, they also brought their own skills to the table. KB, for instance, was demonstrating some of the yoga poses she’s learned from pre-school. Their father is French, and so they threw that into the mix as well. Probably the most charming thing about them was that they both love to sing. Their mom spent several years studying and singing opera, and both of the kids can sing anything from musical numbers to “You Are My Sunshine”. Searching in their backpacks for a Go Fish game that involved minute magnetic fish and poles (which had about 47 pieces), I came across a Chocolate Brownie flavored Clif Z-Bar, exactly like the one I had eaten for breakfast the day before. So I eat the same snacks as pre-schoolers, what of it?

The three-year-old, LB, remembered everyone’s name that he met and was so articulate that I never had to ask him twice what he was saying. Except for Saturday morning at breakfast, before I was awake, when he asked my aunt “where the other J was”, “J” being my mother, and “other” meaning me.

My cousin KH and I got reacquainted with Barbie & Friends as well, and seeing as we spent a good portion of our childhood amongst Rubbermaid containers full of them, we had a lot of catching-up to do. Barbie has way cuter clothes now, her hair is hay-like, and her waist is smaller, if that’s even possible.

I don’t know what has changed, probably my hormones, but I had so much fun playing with the little ones all weekend, whereas a few years ago I probably would have been more interested in hanging out with cousins my own age, calling my friends and straightening my hair.

I should admit that I was exhausted when the weekend was over after running around with K&L. Where did all that energy go, is what I want to know. Whoever said moms have it easy never was one, I’m convinced.

"There are only two things a child will share willingly; communicable diseases and its mother's age."
-Benjamin Spock