Into the Breach

A word here about the awesomeness that is Aunt Amy.

As I said in my previous post, we just arrived in Phoenix for our Festivus visit after a long drive from Los Angeles. The drive was only seven hours or so, though I realize the fact that my instinct to put quotation marks around the word only is telling. As I said, it was a long drive. Not bad, just long.

So it is great to get here and be greeted by folks like Gammy, Grance, and Amy. Gammy (Susan), after showering Kiernan with affection, immediately set about making me a pizza. I kid you not. She got down to making me a pizza. And Grance (Rance), after hugging on Kiernan, set about opening a bottle of wine for me. I tell you, coming to this place is like coming to some kind of resort.

And then there's Amy, my sister-in-law. There are people you see every so often, and when you see them it takes awhile for the two of you to warm up to each other. Amy is not one of these people. Amy is like a lightbulb. She warms up to you instantly. She lights up the room. This has always been a wonderful aspect of knowing her, from my perspective. But seeing it in action in her interactions with my son is just beautiful. There are other ways to describe it, but "beautiful" will do for now, at 2:30 in the morning.

We pulled up to the house here in Phoenix, and Gammy, Grance and Amy were waiting for us outside in the cold night, so excited to see us. Aunt Amy was dancing in the street. Literally. When we pulled into the driveway, Kiernan's first words were,

"Can Aunt Amy unbuckle me from my carseat?"

He just said this in a little, gentle voice. A voice that said that he just wanted to be with his Aunt Amy immediately. We all went inside and the two of them got to playing while we unloaded the car and I gave due attention to Susan's pizza and Rance's wine. I do what I can.

Of course both Susan and Rance attended to Kiernan, but he and his Aunt Amy were immediately just thick as thieves. I love that.

So here's to the awesomeness of Aunt Amy. She rocks.


Picture notes:

The top two pictures are from a birthday party for one of Kiernan's friends, held at a local activity place for kids called Scooter's Jungle. The last picture is an action shot after Kiernan received his bike as a birthday present from Gammy and Grance. Aunt Amy provided the helmet. This helmet is extra special because she wore it while prepping for the Bar exam this year.