Life of the Lintee Bean

I visited my younger brother and seven year old niece for a weekend. My brother called on Wednesday and invited me to fly out that weekend.  I tried to convince him a few weeks later, or even next month may be better, but he said it would be spontaneous and fun. I thought about it, and while I did have plans, they weren’t anything that couldn’t be rescheduled or missed.  So, I went.

By the first night at dinner, my niece looked at us, puzzled, and said “I know you are brother and sister, but you are so different.” I guess we are.  We have some things in common – but we’ve definitely gone our own ways. My brother’s the quintessential salesman, he’s charming and very tech-savvy.  I’m happy to sit at home and play with yarn or watch hockey.

I think I spent more time outside over that weekend than I had in the last two years combined.  I told my brother that I’m just not the “outdoorsy” type.  He said most people don’t consider walking to the market, having a picnic, and spending time near the pool being “outdoorsy”.  I do. I don’t like nature.  While taking out the garbage last week, I decided I could pull my long sleeves down over my hands and pull a few really large weeds.  I went inside and immediately took a shower to wash the nature off of me.  It didn’t seem to matter – within an hour, my wrists and arms were red, swollen, and covered in hives.

Before we went on our picnic my brother lathered himself and my niece in sunscreen.  He offered me some, and I declined.  I claimed the moisturizer I’d used had sunscreen in it.  I was wrong.  It was the facial moisturizer that was SPF 30.  The body lotion had no sunscreen in it, and soon I was bright pink.

I’ve always felt ill-equipped to care for children.  I don’t have children of my own, and really haven’t spent significant time with any of those little people.  However, I didn’t seem to do that badly with my niece.  One morning, I heard my niece gagging in the kitchen and my brother exclaiming “swallow it!  swallow it!  Oh, just spit it out!”  I went to check it out.  He was trying to give my niece medication, asking her to wash it down with a drink.  I suggested he use a spoonful of yogurt instead.  It worked like a charm.

Later, my niece was having some tummy trouble. Relying on my experience with cats, I suggested giving her something containing fat – like butter.  My brother asked if he could just give her  a stick of butter from the fridge.  I was thinking more along the lines of toast with butter.  He asked if  yogurt would work, not since it was nonfat yogurt.  I suggested cheese – and if that didn’t work I knew what we get over-the-counter at the drugstore.

The trip was spontaneous and fun, and I’m glad my brother set it up.  Sure, I was behind on all those tasks I had planned on doing that weekend, but it was definitely worth it.

Submitted for publication in the Greeley Citizen