Show Revenge on ie C siblings is sweet Lisa Keene Horizon Feature Editor Who are the most loyal people in your ones you can count on for love and support anytime And who can be the most useful means of revenge on tin your older brothers and sisters Nieces and nephews of course Having 11 of my own six nephews five nieces ranging rang ranging ranging rang rang- ing from ages 1 to 12 I consider myself somewhat of an aunt expert I am the youngest in my family by several years and have no children of my myown own Therefore I am very dedicated to my siblings' siblings children They help me a alot alot alot lot and in more ways than one Being the he youngest in a family of four I was picked on teased and generally abused mentally I would always say to my b brothers others I will feel so sorry for your kids Who would have known then that those kids would bring me meso so much satisfaction They write me notes draw me pictures and help me get revenge on their parents For instance For the time my brothers shut me in my room with butter on the door knob I buy their daughters daughters' finger paints fingernail polish and bubble gum For the time my sister told me I was bought at mart K-mart and they want me back I give her kids a generous serving of ice cream just before dinner And for the time they all hitched my wagon to a wild goat and put me in it I let all the kids stay up until midnight watching The Wizard of Oz This is all basically harmless My brothers and sister cant can't hate me Im their sister I only get approval from the kids because they have fun with Auntie Lisa They all think Im I'm way cool Its It's fun and vindictive at atthe the same time Having that many nieces and nephews can be ing Some nights the phone will ring and I hear this little littlevoice littlevoice littlevoice voice saying Hi HL Now I have to figure out who this little littlevoice littlevoice littlevoice voice belongs to without saying the wrong name and permanently ruining the childs child's self Lets Let's see Mike and Brandon cant can't talk yet so its it's not them It couldn't be Benjamin because he hes he's s 12 and his voice is cracking Its It's not Brett or Josh because they refuse to talk on the phone willingly Its It's not Summer or Nicole because they only giggle on the phone It has to tobe tobe tobe be either Tassy Tonja or Kyle I take a wild guess praying to be right Im I'm right Its It's Tonja Birthdays are the hardest part of being an aunt Their birthdays arent aren't conveniently packaged in one month out of the year They are spread out through seven I get one card and 2 sent out and before I know it another birthday comes up I never forget Tassy's birthday though She starts announcing her February birthday t the e day after Christmas One of the most rewarding experiences one can have with a niece or nephew is to support him or her in their interests Once I went to watch year six-year-old Brett participate participate participate par par- in swimming lessons We arrived a few minutes early so we watched a class of older boys They were learning to dive Then Bretts Brett's lesson began Today his class was working on jumping off the spring board to w their waiting teacher When Bretts Brett's turn was up he decided Bedded to try a dive like the big boys Not knowing how to dive he did a graceful belly His teacher rescued him and took him to the side of the pool Brett got up and stuck out his belly and grinning patted his belly with both hands clearly proud of his of-his his dive A terrifying experience I had was just last summer I gave my year old nephew a chance to do something something something some some- thing I yearned to do when I was that age I taught him how to drive in a vacant parking lot I came away wiser Now I know why I wasn't allowed to drive until I was 16 Nieces and nephews are the source of love and pride They're also the source of headaches when it comes to the birthdays I have eleven headaches a year but I wouldn't trade them for anything |