Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Uncle Nernie on Vacation

I haven't had a whole week of vacation for about two years. That doesn't mean I've been working that whole time, but a paid week away from the job is a distant memory. So I was pretty excited last week to pack up and leave sweaty Philadelphia for the cool of upstate New York.

My mom and her three siblings have arranged to take a summer vacation together for the last six or seven years or so. Of course their various children and grandchildren are also included. We have had houses in the Poconos, the Jersey shore and one other time in New York state. The very nice thing about all this is the "parents" pay for the house rental and most of the food. Not everyone stays the whole week and some years people don't make it at all, but every cousin and or spouses have made it at least once.

We were in a new house in a new spot this year - Lake Keuka in the New York Finger Lakes region. My smart sister Abby suggested that we go there after she triangulated distances and found out the region was almost equally distant from most of our homes. Of course I think she was mostly trying to cut down their driving time with a not quite two year old child. That's right, the main reason to go on vacation for me was to realx and get to hang out with my only neice - Rebecca (awww). Her Mom and Dad obliged by bringing her along. In my unbiased opinion I've got to say that she is probably the cutest, smartest most well behaved 22-month old ever. She is talking much more that the last time I saw her. She now likes to say "Hi" alot-that and "Yes" as well as the old favorite "Mommy". Right now she will say yes to almost everything-

"Rebecca, do you want to go outside?" "Yes"

"Rebecca do you want to go inside?" "Yes"

"Rebecca do you have a poopy diaper?" "Yes"

I'm pretty sure that by next summer she may be saying "NO!" to everything, so I tried to enjoy her positivity as much as possible. My main stated goal for the week was to get Rebecca to learn my name - no not "Greg" - that's pretty hard. I am sentimental so I wanted her to learn the nickname her mother Abby called me when she was little - Nernie. Yes, as in Nernie and Bert from Sesame Street. Apparently Abby couldn't say "Greg" either at first so Nernie was born. I tried every day to get her to repeat after me, but alas I couldn't get even a "Nern" out of her. Remember this is a very smart child- she can put her shoes on by herself- but I couldn't get her to reply. By the end of the week I was hoping for even maybe an "UnKa" or "Unk" or something. So I had to resort to the game of asking her "Rebecca - where's Nernie?" Then she would point to me so I guess we're halfway there. Maybe by Thanksgiving she'll be able to put it together- you know she is very smart - she can put on her shoes by herself.

Oh yeah, we also swam a lot, went hiking, kayaking and exploring. There was also much eating and drinking - some of it at the regions' many wineries. Somehow the children in the house managed to not hurt themselves critically or break any important objects. So overall it was a pretty good vacation. So until next time- as my niece might say - "Bye!"