I’ll come back to the Casterbridge Tension. Meanwhile, the big news is that I get to be an uncle again!
That’s nice news, isn’t it? Probably next April. My Mum wanted us all to know before it went ‘live’ on flumpbook.
“The first of us who’s not a European!” pointed out my Dad, sagely. We quickly advised moving on from that charged conversation. Though it’s worth noting that he found that hilarious.
So, the Eighth Nibling! Number 6 jumped on me as though I were a climbing frame, and demanded a game of Tenzi (it’s a dice game).
Meanwhile Number 4 was busy playing Fortnite, and Number 2 was under a blanket, complaining of food poisoning.
Somewhere else, Number 1 was at work (she’s 24), Number 3 was running around a garden with two hats on, and Number 5 was probably go-karting with travellers.
Edward The Seventh was reading Pigs and Ham, or maybe memorising the continents, perhaps unable to process that he might get a new little brother or sister. And how! Another new Nibling!
If ever I need to be thankful, I hope my brain can remind me of these moments. I get to be the uncle to eight amazing children: funny and sensitive, smart and sweet, kind and beautiful. I get to take them by the hand and show them at least a little bit of what it’s like in this silly old, wonderful world, and how to leave it better than they found it. Best of all, I get to do that in an actual, real-life, funny family. Hope I do a good job of that, especially with the Newbie Nibling.
... though usually my strategy seems to have been to wind them up until they’re hyper, and then give them back to their parents.
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