Uncle Jeff Or The One Where Jeff Nearly Bursts Into Tears For Love Of Children

This is an exciting blog entry for me! First, my almost sister in law gave birth last week to Noah Ryan Couch! Congrats to Laura and Nathan! Welcome to the family Noah! You beat me to it by 9 months!

The second part of the Uncle Jeff story involves a little 2 year old named Victoria (everyone at the cultural center calls her Vika). She's a little bundle of joy who comes to our cultural center every day when her mom comes in to clean. She's just a doll and runs around making everyone smile all the time. She's a bit shy and takes quite a while to warm up to people, especially to guys. She's a very special little girl to all of us, because she's the first baby saved at our pregnancy center. Her mother is so thankful that she kept her and everything is working out fine for her. Today Vika called me Dada (don't freak out anyone - remember she speaks Russian!) Dada is like kid-speak for Dyadya which means uncle. I about melted. She came running down the hall where I was studying Russian and jumped up onto my chair and said Dada (very seriously) and pointed to the light switch. We play a game that I smile when the light is on and frown when it's off. I've started teaching her a couple English phrases. She already says "hi" and can gimme 5 and gimme 10. I started with right and left and then remembered that she's 2 and I should cut her some slack.

Part three. I am desperately missing Sarah Holleman and her little sister Baby Kate. BK probably isn't much of a baby anymore. She was just walking when I left and now I'm sure she's a running terror! I'm looking forward to seeing the girls again next year and it's awesome when I talk to her dad on the phone when I get to hear her playing in the background. I'm such a sap for kids.