Babies & engagements (no, not MINE!)

I still one of the surest ways to make me feel old is watching a kid grow up almost right before my eyes. My niece, Elizabeth is now one year and 4 months old, and when I look at her now, I can't help but wonder how come these things grow up so dang fast. It's like just yesterday she was this helpless little tiny thing (she was born slightly premature, so she was a bit underweight). But soon after that, her inate cheekiness started coming out, and I dare say that my niece could contend with Jim Carrey for the having a rubbery face, what with all the funny expressions she loves to make. Case in point...








I have a feeling she's going to be a bit of a handful for my bro and his wife... she's starting to be naughty enough to give them a bit of a headache, though thankfully not enough to drive them mad. One of the best things now though, is that even though she only sees me about one every couple of weeks or more, Ellie can already recognize me. And though she can't quite talk yet, aside from the usual nonsensical baby babble, she can indicate she wants me to carry her by lifting up her arms to me, which is fantastic considering most kids usually only want their parents to carry them. I'm starting to have cheeky plans of becoming the fun aunt that takes Ellie out for fun trips and buying her ice cream every time. And I would take her to the zoo and tell her that she is free to try and touch a tapir's butt if it's close enough to the enclosure wall, but make sure she must wash her hands well after that. And I might get her a mini guitar to play with... though she seems to like banging chopsticks on the table, so I think she's more cut out to becoming a drummer. She also seems to enjoy dancing to music, so I could try to train her in the fine art of playing DDR. Heheheee... She's just the cutest kid on the planet right now. Until when I might have my own kids, then of course, they will be the cutest kids on the planet.

In other family news, my other brother in the US just recently got engaged to this Korean chick whom I haven't met face to face since they're halfway around the world, and she has a name I still have trouble spelling, but apparently she's the best thing since sliced bread... to my brother, that is. It seems he popped the question while they were on top of a bunch of big rocks, and he got on his knee and the whole shebang. Gah! My brother's a romantic!!! I learn something new every day... :P You can read the whole story at my bro's blog. So anyway, he was like "Will you marry me, Kyeonghi? (I *think* that's how it's spelled)" and she was like "Yes!" and so now I'm like "Yay! Congratulations, Bernard!". Now I have a good excuse to go the US for a holiday. :D. Though I need to start saving money for the plane ticket... :S. Ah well, God will provide. I'm quite sure when my bro has kids, he'll definitely get them to learn guitar... so I just need to be in charge of taking them on zoo trips and teaching them how to touch the animals without getting bitten. Heheheee.... I'm KIDDING, of course.