Mary Must Be Scary!

I am a lot older than my brothers and so is Pat. We had Connor while our siblings were still in High School. Unfortunately, our kids won't have any cousins their age to grow up with. That's too bad since our whole family lives close together. Now that our brothers and sisters are older, they are starting families but their kids are much younger than our kids. Surprisingly our kids really like the little ones. They are always very patient with their little cousins and their little cousins really like their big cousins a lot.

That is not the case when it comes to their Aunt Mary. It has taken me twice as long to connect with my neices and nephews. I must look like Medusa to little kids or something. I know I can act like Medusa and stare you down like Medusa, but I don't do that to my neices and nephew, just my own kids. For a long time I blamed the kids freaking out on me on my visor. I usually always have a visor on. Sometimes when I took the visor off, the kids didn't react so badly. So, of course it had to be the visors fault. I still have no clue to this day what it is. My friends tell me that I have a look that just doesn't look approachable. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSE TO MEAN?!!! Maybe that is why I got stuck with Pat. He was probably so tanked up with the Captain, he was to oblivious to see that I was unaproachable.

When Hannah(my youngest brothers daughter) was born, I really didn't get to see her that much. I think because we had just moved into our new house and I was really busy getting the house in shape. When I would actually get to see Hannah, she wouldn't even look at me. She would cling to either my mom or dad not giving me a wreck. It took a lot of effort on my part to bond with Hannah. The only time she would let me hold her is when she was Baptized. I was chosen to be her God-Mother. So as an infant you don't have much choice and you really can't put up a fight. But as soon as she was old enough, she gave me the cold sholder. I didn't have it nearly as bad as Pat though. As soon as he would even walk in room, she would scream bloody murder. We couldn't go anywhere if Hannah was going to be there, especially if Pat was going. He blamed her not liking him on his voice being deep. I'm thinking, "No, she's just smart." Plain and simple, she just didn't like us. Who the hell knows to this day why. Today, Hannah is 5 and she thinks I'm the bomb. Of course she should think that. I try to make her feel special when I am around her. Spoiling her with cotton candy doesn't hurt either.
Olivia, Hannahs baby sister, doesn't like me right now. She is not even two yet. She actually gives me dirty looks. Olivia will actually warm up to me if I am around her for a while though. It will still take some more time with Olivia. Olivia is really funny. I can't wait to see how her sense of humor develops.

Aidan, Pat's brothers son, is my only nephew. He is quite a character. I told myself before he was born "He will know his Aunt Mary". It was easy to get to know Aidan because he went to the childcare right down the road. I would stop in at least once a week to go visit Aidan. I can just stop in because I happen to know the owners. The owners happen to be my in-laws. I think Aidan just tolerated me. He probably wondered "Who is this girl who always stops in and bugs me? Doesn't she know I really don't give a rat's ass. I just want to play with my truck in peace." Aidan is Pat's godson. So I think it's important that he know us. Last time I was at Aidan's house, I was teasing him a little bit as I always do and he called me the "annoying one". That was so hillarious! I will say that it reminded me on a time when Connor was really little,he was maybe 4. He was laying in bed with me and it was really late. I was watching T.V. and I was flipping through channels. I must have passed by a channel he wanted to watch and when I told him "No, you are suppose to be going to sleep.", I heard Connor mumble "biiitch" under his breath. I immediately flipped on the light and grabbed his little shoulders and said "who told you that, where did you hear that?" I'm thinking he always hangs out in the garage with Pat and I constantly open the door to the garage and bark out orders to Pat. Was Pat calling me a bitch when I shut the door and Connor picked up on it? Totally waiting for Connor to rat out his dad. I waited as Connor trying to catch his breath from crying said "Cheheheheheyanne". Cheyanne was a little trailer park trash girl in his cub class at daycare. I guess Pat was off the hook, this time. So, with Aidan I was thinking the same thing. Maybe he heard his mom and dad talking about me. I can't start thinking of another conspiricy against me. That little twit of a nephew. I will just tease him more. I will really show him annoying. And, I did. Last weekend he came over my house. V-day fell on a Sunday this year so we had a nice breakfast instead of dinner. Since Aidan and Clare(aidan's younger sister) were there, we had farm animal waffles, sausage, fresh fruit, and juice. Regan and I had also made up candy goody bags for the kids as well. I figured this could score me some points. So after breakfast everyone got their goody bags and as I handed Aidan his bag, I said "Do I get a kiss for the candy Aidan?" He looked at me and sort of shrugged. I know he really wanted the candy but it looked like he was almost willing to give it up if he had to kiss the Medusa Head. He then thought for a second and said "Can we just hug or something?" Of course we all went into hysterics. Kudos to Aidan for coming up with a compromise.

Clare is a whole other demon. I did the same thing with her but she was getting brainwashed. I stopped by to see clare way more than Aidan because she was stubborn. The more I stopped by, the more she cozied up to her Aunt Patra, Pat and Sean's sister. Patra was the teacher in Clare's infant room at the daycare. I bet Patra was telling her that I was Medusa. As soon as Clare saw me walking toward her classroom, she would quickly look around to find a teacher she could run to. I use to love it when I would catch her off guard. She would really freak out then. Now Clare is in a different class and not under the influence of her god- mother, Patra. Things are a little better. But, I had a break through. When we were over Erin and Seans house, I hung out with Clare in her room and talked about her toys. Ever since I did that, our relationship is 180 out. I walked into her class last week and she actually yelled MAAAARY, like she was actually excited that I was there. That was a first. Persistance may have paid off.

My brothers both have babies on the way within the next few months. I guess I will have to start all over again to create a bond. Medusa will be rearing her ugly head again.