Nine Candles

It's that time of the year again.

The post where I say 'I cannot believe it's been X years since my nephew - Josh - was born'.

And I still cannot believe it's flown by this fast.

I've always used up the February 23rd posts to share a funny story about him and this year I am going a little further back with three funny stories.

I want these tales to be posted because, during this past Christmas, he was asking whether we had any fond memories from when he was a baby.

I had a handful to tell but here are the three ones I always smile at.

The first happened in the October or November of 2002 when my Aunt was visiting from Ireland. I remember it was the morning she was leaving and my mother, sister and I were with her and Josh in the living room just before I left for work.

Josh was in the middle of the room dancing around like any nineteen-month old toddler would do and there was a hat on the floor. Spectacularly, he managed to kick the hat up in the air and have it land right on top of his head.

We all burst out laughing and clapping him and he took his applause well...

And then tried it again.

And again.

And again.

It didn't seem to work as well as it had the initial time. I told him at Christmas - he should have quit after the first attempt.

Story number two shows his friendly side.

I was having a dispute with my father over something. I don't even remember what it was over but we both thought we were right and were arguing our point. I lost that argument and stormed off up to my room and sat listening to music.

A few minutes later, a young Josh walked into the room.

This was at a time when he still hadn't started talking properly. He sat beside me on the bed and shook his head in a way that gave me the impression that he was on my side - it was like a 'I can't believe he thinks that' kind of look on his face. He was using his expression to convey he was on my side in the disagreement.

It made me smile. It still does now.

The third story was the one that generated the most giggles at our belated Christmas dinner of 2009.

Once again, this is about a toddler Josh but this time it's also about his demonic adversary at the time - the vacuum cleaner.

He hated it.

It would always make him cry whenever it was turned on. He would run away from it whenever we were using it in the house.

One afternoon, I was leaving my bedroom and heading downstairs when I caught Josh circling the cleaner.

He hadn't seen me on the stairs so I sat down to observe from a somewhat hidden vantage point to see what he was doing.

He kept circling the appliance. Sizing it up. He must have been there for what seemed like minutes walking around it looking at it and then he went and hit the button.

The sound made him jump and he sprinted as fast as he could away from it.

I've got so many stories but you'll have to wait until next year for more!