Aunthood

The night before I last I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited for two reasons.
1)I’m still in the old college town waiting for graduation but I didn’t have any finals the next day so I got to sleep in. I love sleeping in.☺️
2) After I woke up, I got to go pull my eight year old niece out of school an hour early to go on a date with me.

They don’t know how excited I get just to see them.
They don’t know how cool I think they are.
They don’t know that I really do still think of them like they’re 18 months old toddling around. Them running away from me tickling them but still within reach that I could wrap my arm around their pooched bellies and pull their whole body back with just one hand.
They don’t know that I think about them all the time. That I hope with all my being that I can help them along their way, and be just what they need from their aunt.
They don’t know how much I love just sitting with them. Especially if they’re piled all around me.
The other day at Ross I probably creeped a little girl out.
I had one of those slow mo moments. I walked down an aisle. At the end of the aisle in the main path, I watched a man pick up this little girl. She was probably 3. I stared. It was just the way he picked her up was so smooth and familiar. And her response. She wasn’t looking at her dad. She had her thumb in her mouth and was looking straight at me. Once she was up it took exactly no time before her body was perfectly contorted to be completely wrapped around him. You know the hold. She was propped slightly on his side, instantly resting her head on his should. His right hand under her seat, his left supporting her back, laying her up against him. One fluid motion. Him, made to pick her up and hold her. Her, made to fly straight up and be held.
I kept staring and the girl stared right back. I instantly ached for my Julie, who is still just that size.
After Stevie and I had a [relaxing] blast, I took her home and her three sisters were watching a movie. They all exclaimed my name. Julie hopped off the couch and yelled “Andi!” extra enthusiastically and threw her arms up in the air, running toward me. Like I was made for it, my hands go under her arms as a squat down a little, pull her up in the air. Muscle memory brings her to my torso and instantly she is wrapped up in around my whole body. One fluid motion. A hurricane couldn’t tear us apart. It feels so good. To be able to hold a whole tiny person. To have them hold you just because they get to see you. My heart soars.
That is what being an aunt to these five girls feels like. All. The. Time.