Just Desserts

I love my sister, Liz. We lived two blocks from each other for three years. We went walking at 4:30 in the morning together for most of that, talking and walking. We got pretty close. She came up with her two boys and stayed with us for five weeks this fall while she was training for a new management position. It was fun to have her. I sure do enjoy haning out with her and watching her kids play with my kids.

So it is with great love and compassion that I say that her three-year-old son is a little stinker. He is so CUTE! And he knows it, danggit. He's pretty sure that if he grins big enough, he can get away with perjury, embezzlement and frauds of all kinds. And he's been right in the past on more than one occasion.




But you know what? Liz absolutely deserves him. She's pretty much a stinker herself. Here she is, on Thanksgiving, trying to lick Karen while I'm trying to take the following photo of the matching tin grins. But that wasn't all. She also went around giving wet willies to people during the game hour, and other oh-so-mature displays of affection. Never a dull moment when my family gets together. She's a real kick, that girl, but she hardly stands out in the crowd.


You know every mom that has ever raised children has said - or thought! - something like this: "I hope you grow up and have to raise 10 kids just like you!" Well, I know my mom said that. Frequently. And her mom said it to her. I don't know if all ten of us are exactly like my mom, but the irony is not lost on me. And after seeing Liz getting to raise herself reincarnated as Alex? Well, let me tell you that I'm quaking in my boots. See, I was a model child. But somewhere around the age of eleven or twelve....well, let's just say that I'm looking at my four daughters in a row and wincing in advance.