I feel like Hunter has enjoyed having me here so much. I mean, I’m pretty sure Brandon and Liz have enjoyed me being here but I think Hunter is really happy that I’m here. He snuggles me every night before he goes to bed and would sleep with me on the couch if I let him. If it wasn’t a couch I would be totally up for snuggling my nephew all night but I need my space so I’m sure I’d end up pushing him off in my sleep or something. This way we both get a good night’s sleep and he comes down as soon as he wakes up in the morning and cuddles me some more. In the morning I think he’s way more interested in playing with my phone than cuddling me for more than a minute or two though. It doesn’t hurt my feelings. Much. Seriously though, I love every minute I get to spend with my little nephew. He’s growing up so fast it’s almost scary. He’s going to be five in a couple months!
He’s already reading really well, especially for his age. He has a really good grasp of phonics but the English language has so many stupid exceptions even I get confused sometimes. It’s funny when he reads or spells something completely phonetically and when corrected gets defensive about it. This morning he was drawing a pictures for Joel and wrote From Hunter. When we were telling him how to write To Joel he got kind of upset because he thought there shouldn’t be an E in the middle of Joel’s name. “No, it’s Jeh Oh Lll!” I don’t blame him really. Who made up English anyway? Spelling would be so much simpler if English just followed it’s own rules all the time. Oh well.
He says all kinds of things that crack me up. Last night while we were snuggling in bed he randomly says “Aunt Abigail, when are you going to have kids?” We weren’t even talking at all at the time so I’m not sure where it came from. I get asked that question quite frequently but he is by far the youngest to ever ask. I said something about someday I’d like to have kids but they’re a lot of work blah, blah, blah. His response was “Ok. Well, when you have kids can you bring them over so they can play with me?” Ah, the mind of a child.
Anyway, he’s at such a fun age. My sister has done such a good job of raising a sweet, polite little boy. He has his moments of being a little stinker but, when I see other kids his age and compare, he’s one of the best behaved kids I know. He’s got the best facial expressions, especially when he’s confused or thinks I’m wrong about something. He crunches up his eyebrows and says “Are you kidding me?” It cracks me up every time. I hate that they live so far away because I feel like I’m missing so much. He has changed even since September when they moved out here. *sigh*
I wish time with this branch of my family didn’t have to be so few and far between. It’s been wonderful though and I’m soaking up every second I get to spend with each of them.