My First Favorite Person

OK, probably my baby and my husband should be my favorite people, but I feel an extreme kinship with my almost 6 year old nephew Jack. This post and poem that I wrote a few years ago when he was almost 2, and still my only nephew, describe how he changed my life. (Photo: My first bday with nephew!)
In the past few years, another amazing nephew was born, and then an amazing niece. Obviously, I cannot as a good aunt call my first nephew my favorite. In fact, I probably should no longer speak in terms of favorite, as I could do 5 years ago when my nephew was the brightest spot in my life. Instead, I'll say that this quote from him, that my sister emailed to us yesterday, makes me think of how much Jack reminds me of me.

Here's the email:
Thought you might get a kick out of this quote from Jack. We were at the dinner table.
Jack: "I'm probably the smartest kid inside my class. (Pauses for a second.) When it was 1:58, the other kids thought it was 2 o'clock."
Dumb kids.
Love,
A

I love that smarty pants attitude- and you know, the kid is right. He probably is the smartest kid in his class, and those little dummies can't tell time as well as he can. The kid can read clocks better than most of my sixth graders. I think I'm pretty smart, and I'm a fast learner, so I can relate. In first grade, my teacher had to cancel the fifty state spelling lists, because Marty and I were the only kids who could handle them. I see a lot of myself in Jack. That, and the fact that he was my first nephew- the first important kid in my life that was in a way at least a little part of me- will always make him special!

Oh, plus, if you read this post where he tells me I can't steal his sippy cup, you can see that he and I are sort of telepathically connected. He read my mind. I was going to steal his sippy cup.

The pictures below are funny, because you can tell all I wanted to do was follow him around any pay attention to him. I'm barely IN any photos with him because I was usually taking photos.










(these first two photos, I had yet to meet my husband, so OBVIOUSLY Jack was my favorite person!)

















(this last photo is from 2 months before my 2nd nephew was born.)