My Great Aunt Mary and Great Uncle Ron came to visit the boys this morning. It's a shame we don't see them very often, even though they only live about five blocks away.
My Aunt Mary is my mom's paternal aunt. Italian aunt. 100% Italian. Short and with a pretty healthy-sized nose and slightly stocky build, Aunt Mary never had kids. She's the kind of woman who would gaulk at how tall we got, how talented we were and how beautiful we played the piano. Honestly, we could never do wrong, according to my Aunt Mary.
Uncle Ron is a male fashionista... or perhaps it's fashionisto. You've never seen a grown man get more excited about clothes or cologne. Uncle Ron has always doted these huge Coke-bottle glasses, though you still can't be sure his vision is any stronger because of them. Always the first to laugh at his own jokes, he's much more likely to forget the punchline and say, "Mar, how did it go?" When I was little, he'd hide a dollar bill under each of our dinner plates and couldn't wait for us to sit down in our seats and discover them.
They are such a sweet couple. They're in their seventies now and the only thing that's changed about them in the past thirty years I've known them is their speed. They must just a little slower these days.
But we had such a great visit and my sides still hurt from laughing. I wanted to tell you about the highlight of my day, because of their visit.
I could talk about how funny it was to hear Uncle Ron keep mixing up the boys' names, even though I was sure to put Ben in blue, just like always. But not only was he mixing them up, he was calling Jack "Jeremy." Poor boys started responding to just about anything!
I could also tell you about how Aunt Mary thought their little caterpillar was a crocodile.
I could even brag about how sweet it was to watch each of my boys run to each of them and embrace them in a big squeeze, followed by a gentle kiss on the cheek.
I could also talk about how hilarious it was watching Uncle Ron with the boys' baseball bat, swinging at the air and then jokingly starting to fall down after every swing. Jack and Ben were in stitches. So was I. So was Aunt Mary.
And gosh, if only I could have counted how many times my aunt exclaimed, "aye aye" or inhaled a long "heeeeeeeee" in worry or fascination as she watched the boys climb, jump off of or dive into the couch.
But by far, the biggest highlight of my day was watching them do "Ring around the Rosie." All four of them. The boys grabbed their hands as they made a little circle in my dining room. We sang the song as Uncle Ron, Aunt Mary, Jack and Ben shifted their feet to the left to form a little circle. My aunt and uncle looked so cute, huntched over, holding two two-year-old's little hands in each of theirs. Jack and Ben couldn't take their eyes off of them. Then, as they got to the end... "we all fall DOWN!" you would have expected the boys to fall to the ground. We've done it a million times before. But they didn't this time. They watched the two grown-ups gently fold their knees, but otherwise, stand still. So the boys did the same. "No!" Aunt Mary laughed, "fall down! You fall down! I can't!" But the boys just stood there, still holding hands, and knees slightly bent. They sang it again (and this time, I could barely sing because I was laughing so hard.) And when they got to the "We all fall DOWN!" Aunt Mary bent down on one knee. But the boys still stood there, completely enamored by their new playmates. Aunt Mary couldn't stop laughing as she tried to encourage the boys to fall to the ground, but the most they would do is fall to one leg. "Ron, help me up!" she laughed, "I can't get up!" He waddled his way to his wife and extended both arms to pull her up before they tried the game a few more times. I don't know if this scenario sounds funny to you, but it was absolutely hilarious!
When they left, after Uncle Ron had made a few speedy trips to the bathroom, he said, "That was the most fun I've had in my entire life." I'm sure there were plenty of moments that may have surpassed the laughs that was had in our household today, but it definitely topped my list for the day. Possibly my week. Thanks, Aunt Mary and Uncle Ron, for reminding me that we're never too old (or young or fill-in-the-blank) to have a little fun.
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