05 Jul sweet family portraits with my nephew

“Here’s your twenty-two dollars,” Atreyu declares as each of his stuffed animals order drinks and food one by one from his couch side coffee shop.  “Thank you, Atreyu!, ” I say as I pretend to be his rhino or turtle or dog coming in to order a maple scone and some coffee from him.  Sometimes they are out of tea or definitely don’t serve bagels!  But overall, a really great place to hang out and get some pretend refreshments.

I just revel in his innocence and delight in seeing him experience new things.  My mom got him a Winnie the Pooh movie that we watched with him for the first time.  While the movie was awesome, the best part was watching Atreyu sit motionless, on the edge of his seat, fully engaged in this brand new adventure with characters he’s only seen in a book before.  He couldn’t take his eyes off the screen.  Then at the very end, after the credits finished rolling, the bad guy appears again unexpectedly.  Atreyu yelped, jumped up and hid behind my mom.  It was such a real and uninhibited reaction to something that, as I get older, I forget would be scary to a child.  Those are the moments that I love being a part of.  I just love being Auntie Crystal.