The Competition

This weekend, we celebrated my sister-in-law's birthday. There were presents, there was cake. There was homemade ice cream (Ben's Rocky Road) and sherbet (my orange, which my brother said was disgusting, though everyone else seemed to like it).

There was singing. We sang "Sto Lat," Poland's traditional, "For she's a jolly-good fellow" song which means, "May she live a hundred years for us." We sang a traditional "Happy Birthday" twice-- once for Skye, and once for Zoey who also wanted to blow out a candle. We sang the "Unbirthday Song" from "Alice in Wonderland" for everyone else. Dan, Skye's dad, sang "The Strawberry Roan" by Marty Robbins, but that was completely unrelated.

It was a big-time party. Paizlee was wearing what looked like Daisy Dukes and a wife-beater (we allow this because she's six-months-old, and she was covered in goop, not because we promote immodesty in our family). Zoey helped her mom open presents. Our friend Lola kept us laughing with stories about the chickens she used to keep, and how she'd named them after her sisters. Dad made some pretty good burgers, and Jacob dropped his on my mom's dining room chair. Shhh! She doesn't know. All in all, it was a good time. Until the goodbyes.

That little Zoey is such a hussy. She's got this infatuation with chapstick. She calls it her "lips" and she won't do anything until she has lips on. Like, on the days I take care of her, she'll say, "Aunt Rachy, I need to go potty." And I'll say, "OK, let's go." And she'll say, "In a minute-- I need lips." Seriously.

Sometimes she digs up only lipstick from heaven-knows-where (under Ashley's old bed, I suspect). Sometimes she looks like this:


Anyway, yesterday she was in typical form, and was good enough to put "lips" on everyone at the party. Good thing we don't have mouth issues, right? Germy.

But the other thing is, Zoey likes to kiss. Now, this should not be a big surprise. She is, after all, a Sego. She even has a boyfriend-- a 3-year-old from nursery named Wes. Apparently Z was putting lips on Wes, including some really sparkly stuff, and then Wes kissed her. We asked if he was a good kisser and she said yes. A girl after my own heart.

But, the problem with Sego girls is that we sometimes actually steal other girls' men, often without even noticing it. It happened to me once in high school, and to this day a girl named Christy doesn't have much use for me. And, OK, actually it happened more than once, but not enough to justify my nickname (the Black Widow). Whatever.

So, we were saying goodbye. Jacob had to go do some home teaching, and he was my ride. We gathered our things and Zoey gave me a big hug. It was tender. And even though she wouldn't talk to "Big Jake" for the first half hour of the party, she went to give him a hug as well. He picked her up for his own big squeeze, and that little tart kissed him on the lips! When I asked him about it later, he said she'd just puckered up and he went for it.

I think my two-and-a-half year-old niece could teach me a thing or two.