Celebrate Good Times: A Special Award

My favorite thing about our trips to VA every summer is the time with all the Kreitzer cousins.  My inner camp counselor is always awakened and I find myself feeling young enough to do things like wrestle someone into the pool, lie back and float downriver with the current or sit close enough to a fire to roast the perfect marshmallow.  Being an aunt is one of the roles I love most in life--and one that comes the most naturally.  I've heard that being a grandparent is the ultimate best--we'll see.  For now, I love that I can appreciate my nieces and nephews for exactly who they are without worrying about the details.  I spend time with them because I want to, because I love them and because they are just plain fun.
I also find it fascinating that all of these beautiful, talented kids came from me and my motley crew of siblings.  Who woulda thunk it?
This summer, I became better acquainted with one nephew in particular, a very determined, persistent, sweet and helpful little guy.

Here he is:

His name is Matthew--or Matt-chew--as I sometimes call him.  Age 5.  Very cute, no?

A few years back, Matthew and family spent some of their Christmas vacation here at Casa Doyle during which time I made the mistake of stealing his bunny.  He didn't come near me or speak to me for the rest of the visit.  At the time I thought that was a little harsh.  I mean, come on, I was playing.  After thinking it over, I decided that he was perfectly right.  Poor little guy.  How else could he defend himself against the mean adult who dared deprive him--if momentarily--of his best friend?  I think he's finally forgotten the incident but he really has a surprisingly long memory.

Fast forward to this summer.  Jes and I swapped kids for a few days.  She got Mia and Grace and I got Alex and Matthew (if he brought bunny, it was on the low down).  Besides all of the activities at Camp Kreitzer, I kept the kids busy with a few fun outings.  The first was to the river, my happy place in Woodstock.  We used to go there for rock throwing and scary bridge crossing.  Now, we go there to jump off the bridge and swim.  Fearless Matthew decided that he was going to swim under the bridge--against the current.  He swam and swam and swam and swam until I finally told him he should rest.  So he rested--for a minute--then swam and swam and swam and swam again.  It was as if someone had a hand pressed against his forehead.  He didn't budge.  I finally convinced him to swim under the bridge from the other direction.  We took a video of that.  Really, though, I have never seen anyone so determined to do something so obviously hopeless.

That is, until I took him roller skating.  Even though Ella and Sophie had recently successfully skated, they could not stay upright on their skates.  Maybe the rink was too slick.  I don't know, but they gave up pretty quickly to run around the small training rink.  Alex had enough experience on skates to get going pretty well and Matthew?



I wished I'd brought a pillow to tie around his butt.  I have never seen anyone fall so hard so many times.  I was mentally calculating the distance to the hospital.  Again though, he was determined to learn.  And he did.  After 227 falls, he was able to skate around the rink slowly but steadily.  After that, he let me beat him at air hockey a couple of times.  What a guy.

But my favorite Matthew story happened at the beach.  Jes and I were hanging out around the pool and Matthew was swimming--the only kid there.  I asked him, "Matthew, can you swim the length of the pool underwater without breathing?"  He asked how to do it and I showed him the stroke.  He struggled at first but, in what I had learned is typical Matthew fashion, he tried and tried and DID IT!  So, I owed him a Slurpee.  But then, he did it again!  And again!  And again!  Until he'd earned Slurpees for all of his siblings and cousins.  

This round's on Matthew

That was the best $15 I've spent in a long time.

So, Matthew--from your Aunt Alice, you win the....

Most Likely to be a Superhero Award 

because if I were ever in trouble, I would want a brave and determined little guy like you in my corner!

More pics of our handsome nephew:

 Matthew and Sophie are triplets (with Lauren).  They were all on the inside at the same time and love each other a lot (most of the time).


Two blondies, engrossed and completely in the way




The face of a determined skate rat

  courageous wave rider

 getting some air on the beach (photo by Jes)

 night swimming

learning craps on the beach before a very fun casino night--more on that later

 Swimming around the Jet Ski dock.  "Look Aunt Alice!" (he said that a lot this summer--I'd say he's definitely forgiven me about the bunny:)