A Pink Horse and a Red Phone

When I was little I reaped the benefits of having no cousins. My mother's sister and her husband weren't even married when I was born but he saw me as his first niece and went out and found a gigantic stuffed horse to give me as a birth-day gift. Its pink and I used to be able to sit on it. Apparently my uncle had to have someone get up on a ladder to get it and he couldn't have just any pink horse; it had to be that pink horse. This picture that I found is actually pretty similar if not exact:

It was pretty much exactly that size and eventually its legs went out underneath it and it couldn't stand up anymore. They got married probably a couple of years later or less. My aunt probably would've been around 21 years old when I was born. I think she's my godmother and my maternal grandfather is my godfather. She carried me for my baptism and I was quiet the whole time unlike the other screaming mimi babies.

When I was about 4 they took me to Canobie Lake Park because my uncle had paid-for tickets for a company outing and they didn't have kids of their own. I was wearing light denim overalls with mint green clasps and a green and blue striped shirt and I sniffled the whole time. My aunt kept asking if I had a cold and I kept denying it. We went on the teacups and they were my favorite ride. For the rest of the outing we kept trying to find them again because I loved them so much, but we never were able to. Now I realize that was probably on purpose because we could've just looked at a map and also, the teacups are probably sort of lame. I thought they were awesome though.

I remember their apartment in Cambridge and how their bedroom was at the end of the hall. They had a bright red dial telephone and my uncle had weights lined up next to the bed for working out his arms. Once, my father, a pretty big guy, asked me who would win in a fight between him and my uncle and I said my uncle. My incredulous father asked why and I said, "He lifts weights!" They moved out of that apartment into my grandparents old apartment building and then my sister was born. We'd have sleepovers on the diningroom floor with all our stuffed animals and when we got up my aunt would make us french toast. That was my favorite food by her. I also remember thinking my uncle had skinny heels and watching him swallow vitamins and hoping he wouldn't choke because I think he did get one stuck one time. Not majorly.

Four years after my sister was born my aunt had me announce to the family at Easter that she was pregnant. Nowadays they live in a giant house in Connecticut and we see them at holidays and call them for birthdays. My aunt sends cute stuff to us randomly, like the rock hard cookies I got in the mail the other day. They were still good; I ate them all, its just funny. They have two kids and a dog and my uncle started his own business, which is cool and I'm going to learn about that soon. Anyways, there are perks to being the oldest: Christmas gifts, attention, new clothes, theme park trips. This post doesn't really have a point though, its a little more documentary.