virtual_visit unhinged the incoming video call screen with my sister's name flashed across my phone. i answered it and was immediately greeted with his adorable little smile all up in my screen. (i haven't shared physical space with him since he was about three months old and he's five now) i watched him eat lunch i watched him play with his toys which he had to show me at the table in his bedroom in his basement toy room in the pillow fort daddy built mommy took a shower (sometimes mommy video calls me so i can video babysit so she can get some privacy in the shower) daddy came back inside from cutting the grass we were still hiding together in the pillow fort after about two and a half hours i got antsy told him i needed to hang up to make my lunch ('lunch?! didn't you already have lunch?' he asked. i had made a smoothie a couple hours before. 'auntie lives so far away it was still breakfast time here when i made that smoothie.' 'oh.' i could hear his brain storing that brand new information, new neurons and synapses connecting things previously unconnected.) 'so auntie is going to hang up now jakey.' 'i can hang it up' the sadness in his little voice almost made me change my mind but he had already pushed the button. about a half an hour later i got this text from my sister: He just asked if he can call you again. He said she was making lunch it's been a long time. Im sure she's done now. so i opened the video chat app on my phone and called back. mommy answered the call 'i don't think this call is for me' and took the phone to him 'look at that big smile' my phone screen filled up with his irrepressible smile and my face matched his almost instantaneously. we talked for almost another hour while the three of them ate dinner. by the time he finished his plate he decided he had finally had enough of auntie. 'i think he's done now. say goodbye to auntie.' his little face consumed the screen as he smooched it 'bye auntie.' 'bye jake. hold on. whenever you want to talk to auntie just tell mommy you want to call me ok?' his little smile reignited 'ok!' 'love you! bye!' 'love you! bye!' the screen went black. 211108 ... tender_square (i adore this post, unhinged! i loved hearing about it yesterday, but seeing it rendered here with so much tenderness and detail makes it really come alive. what a lucky nephew to have you for an auntie!) 211108 ... unhinged thanks a lot tender_square the last couple posts on child_elegance on blue are also about jake he was so particular as a baby even daddy couldn't really soothe him. i trekked back to ohio to meet him when he was three weeks old and for some inexplicable reason i could hold him and he wouldn't fuss. when i fed him that day, he looked me right in the eye the whole time and then patted me on the back i am supposedly the only person he video chats with like that. i really struggle with words to describe it but that child chose me when he was very little. i entered into the small three woman circle that he allowed to soothe him and we have been having these epic video chats for like a year now. he's at the cutest age. my brother in law kept pointedly telling jake how great it would be if i came to visit. him and my sister both have been great at keeping me and jake close even though i live so far. it amazes my sister how much he interacts with me through the phone. i can't help but think his heart remembers the day i fed him when he was a querulous screaming peanut that was driving my sister mad. i'm gonna have to go visit in the spring 211108 what's it to you? who go blather from