My Niece

I don't know if I've mentioned her without it being in passing, but my newly-acquired niece is pretty awesome. She's cheerful, smart, and the fact that she likes Hello Kitty *and* Ninja Turtles is incredibly cool. The middle statement really hit home today, as I found myself in a position of talking with an eight year old. I think he was trying to impress me, but the conversation ended up feeling like a month's worth of late-1980s gossip about video games. He had all sorts of theories that were sort of the equivalent of "If you beat Mario 37 times, he gets a gun". After less than five minutes, I was thinking that my niece (only five years old) was a better conversationalist than that boy.  So, she's pretty cool, and when she, her mom, and her brother come to the library, she hops right into the chair next to me to ask me to search for books for her.

This all makes what happened on Saturday night even funnier. Amanda was reading our niece a bedtime story that involved various Marvel superheroes and villains. One page showed the Blob, a nemesis of the X-Men. Our niece asked about him, and I explained that he's really fat and can't be hurt. After a bit of talking, she pointed at my stomach and said "Like that one?" I said yes, and she said "It's soo big!" (In reference to my stomach)

I thought it was hilarious, Amanda (while grinning) told her that it wasn't a very nice thing to say. Anyway, when the time came for us to leave, I said goodbye and scooted up the stairs. Amanda was a little bit behind me. But I clearly heard our niece say "Auntie Amanda, you forgot to close the door!" So Amanda walked back down the stairs, and I heard the bedroom door shut. Then after a second, I heard her yell "AUNTIE AMANDA, you forgot to say goodbye!"

Her parents, Amanda, and I all started cracking up.