DOUBLE BIRTHDAY ALL THE WAY!!!

Today is the birthday of two of my FAVORITE PEOPLE EVER.  EVER.  my super awesome sister Mandy, and her son (and my nephew) Miles.

That is Mandy.

This is Miles.

 They are both awesome, and i am going to tell you why.

Mandy had been my older sister since forever.  cause when they're older they're always there.  Mandy is roughly 12 years older than i am so she went to college when i was pretty little.  that's probably why i don't remember much about her from my childhood and its also a large factor into my vast ignorance about womanly things.  or whatever. 

here are some of my childhood memories about my sister Mandy:

-my turtle hates her.  and her friends.  i dunno why, but it just hated them.

-typically, Mandy would protect me from my older brothers.  in fact, i can't really ever remember a time where she has been mean to me.

-every Christmas when i was a little guy i would wake up and go into my sister's room and she would read me Christmas books in order to help me deal with the painstaking wait for my parents to get up.

Me and Mandy, i think around the time that she was about my age now and i was like 9 or 10

there's probably more, but again.. i was a little kid and she moved on to grown-up things before i even discovered pokemon. 

luckily for me, Mandy moved back to our hometown after she was done with college and my brother in law got done with law school and stuff.  for a while she even lived next door to us and so during my high school times i got to be BFFs with my sister.

so it kind of goes without saying that Mandy is awesome.  she was a middle school english teacher (middle school teachers must be saintly) before she became a full time momma (yet another saintly occupation).  she got married when i was 10 so from a young age i had another example of a good marriage besides my parents.  i have also had the opportunity to learn epic parenting skills from my sister and her kids.  

Mandy's always been one to stand up for what's right.  like always.  she isn't afraid to put me in my place when i get overly sarcastic or outspoken.  she doesn't really put up with crap when people give it to her.  but she is also patient with people who you need to be patient with.  pretty much she's just a really good example of a really good, faithful person.  yeah.

whenever i am home in california, i enjoy going to Mandy's house to hang out.  whether its talking to her while folding laundry, playing with her kids, watching a movie, or wrecking her at Dr. Mario, i love spending time with my big sister very much.

well it's Mandy's birthday today and i hope its a good one.  she would have gotten to chill out and relax earlier today, but she ended up watching her neighbor's kids, cause they're having a baby today too.  yeah.  way to help people on your birthday.

BUT, as if it wasn't enough, today is also Miles' birthday.  Mandy's firstborn.  my first nephew. 

this is me with Miles the day that he was born.

14 year old Scott holding lil Baby Miles.

Here are some awesome Miles facts that i bet you didn't know:

-Miles is left-handed.

-when he was a baby, Miles learned my name before everyone else.  he used to commando crawl all around the house (cause he did that all the time before he normal crawled) and he would call me "gott" and everyone else "da da."  yeah.  that is awesome.

-when he was about 1 or so i would watch him frequently during the mornings in the summer.  one day we somehow came up with a game where i would get a bunch of the ice outside of the icemaker in their fridge and we would try to throw ice into this watering can in his backyard.  it was a pretty hard game.  but pretty much every day i'd come over he would say "ice" and we would play.  

-Miles likes to draw.

-Miles has recently developed of a love of pokemon.  it makes me quite happy.  when my brother got married, Miles spent much of the reception playing pokemon gold version with my sister in law's lil brother who is the same age as Miles.  Miles has a lot to learn about pokemon, though.  he kept telling me how he was having his chikorita use leer on a geodude... sigh...

well, there you have it.  double birthday all the way... so intense.  it makes me really really happy that these two people are totally in my life and totally in my family.