It so happens that I have two adorable nephews, whom I dote upon as a good auntie should. They are probably the nicest, smartest kids in the universe (apart from the children of all my friends, who are also the nicest and smartest, in a different way). I don’t blog about my nephews much because their parents retain chief bragging rights. But I have explicit permission from Noah’s dad on this one.

Noah is 3 and a half, and when he speaks he articulates at least as well as Laurence Olivier, if not better. Lately he’s been really into rhyming; he even rhymes himself to sleep. Over Thanksgiving weekend I heard more rhymes than I heard in an entire year of poetry grad school (plus one morning he woke me up early to ask what it would be like, if we all had to bury our food in the dirt before we ate it). It’s fun to get Noah to say multisyllabic words because he pronounces them so accurately, in such a high-pitched little voice. Recently my brother Ryan (his dad) was playing this game.

Ryan: “hey noah, can you say encyclopedia?”
Noah: “no, i can’t say that”
Ryan: “try it”
Noah: “encyclopedia”
Ryan: “can you say deciduous?”
Noah: “deciduous.”
Ryan: “can you say reciprocate?”
Noah: “reciprocate. what does that mean?”
Ryan: “to do it back”
(ryan hugs noah, laughing and impressed; noah hugs back)
Ryan: “what are you doing?”
Noah: “I’m reciprocating!”

I don’t have a recent picture of the two of them together, but here’s Noah dressed up as a sea lion, followed by Ryan with his other son, Judah. You can’t see Ryan’s nose, but hey, it’s an overrated feature anyway.
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