Gary

I was seven when my sister got pregnant for the first time, she was 17. My mother wasn't too excited but with her being in the US and my sister in Ecuador there wasn't too much she could have done to prevent this from happening. When my sister was around 22 my mother brought her to live with us here in the US. At 25 she had her second child. I don't know what happened but they had to remove one of her ovaries and the doctor's told her the chances of having more children were slim to none. Since she had a boy the first time and now a girl, it didn't bother her that much since she felt she had one of each and was now done.

When she turned 31 she found out she was pregnant. My mother laughed at her - but in a friendly motherly way. Nine months later Gary was born. I remember my niece wanted to return him because he didn't have yellow (blonde) hair. Out of all of her children Gary is the "active" one.

Have you seen the plastic commercial with the little boy who's mother keeps saying "It will be a miracle if he makes it to ..enter age.." Well that's Gary. When he was 2 he use to drive me crazy with his "what is this" and "why is it this way" questions. He's always jumping off of things and getting into things. He can talk your head off in both english and spanish and believe me he really can. I never got use to him when he was 2 but then again I never really got to hang out with him. He comes over more often now that my mother is off weekends and I enjoy having him here, hearing him talk and still ask the questions he asked when he was 2. He's always smiling and laughing and making others smile and laugh. I took him to the store last weekend and it's usually a five minute walk but with him it must have taken 20 minutes because he wanted to hop over every crack in the sidewalk, I couldn't help but smile at the situation. At our cousin's birthday party he almost made the birthday boy cry because he just had to blow out the candles, making everyone laugh.

Today as he was putting his coat on to go home, he told me "Bye, I'll be right back." I can't wait for the weekend to come to have him come "right" back.