It's Tini Time!

*ring ring--ring ring* goes my cell phone at 8:30 at night. It's my brother... and at this time of night it can only mean one thing.

"hello?" I say.

"Hi Tini!" says the little voice on the other end of the line... filled with enthusiasm and radiating with the type of love that only a child can emanate.

"Hey baby!!! How are you?" I say, doing my best to match his level of excitement.

"Good. I'm gonna pick you up from the airport" which is really pronounced aiwpowt because with this particular child pronouncing R's always comes out as W's... and it just adds to the level of cuteness that he exudes.

"Really, Frankie. Are you gonna drive?"

"Nope"

"Well whose gonna drive the car then?"

"Daddy is!"... he says this to me as if I should've already known. Kind of like saying 'Duh, Tini'.

He continues... "So are you on the airplane?".

I'm laughing as I say "No, baby... Tini will be there Monday so that's 4 days from now"

"4 days?" he questions. Silence briefly consumes the conversation and I can tell he's mulling this over. Then with as much conviction as a 4 year old could possibly muster up he says "No! 2 days".

Laughter. "I'm sorry baby but it's definitely 4 days... but I promise we'll have so much fun when I get there"

More silence ensues which obviously means that Frankie is thinking very hard about what he can say next. Then with even more conviction (and cuteness) he responds "3 days!" ... hoping that we can make a compromise. This runs in the family. One of my brothers would always start off asking mom for more then 1 cookie... I believe the magic number was 5 but I may stand corrected on this. He'd work his way down to one, mom would give him the cookie and he'd spend the entire day walking around with it in his hand until the dog who had been following him all day finally (and most likely out of frustration of having to watch the cookie like a hawk all day) snatched it away from him. After fits of tears the process of cookie compromising would inevitably start once again. So it comes as no surprise to me that this little man spends time trying to get me to come home sooner than my trip is actually booked for.

The fact that he's so excited to see me completely melts my heart and fills every inch of me with utter happiness. It's amazing what the love of a child can bring into your life...

As this conversation goes on I can't help but think about how much I've really missed this little guy... and all my little guys back home (of course including our little princess). I'm so excited to see them it's sick. One might say, I'm too excited to sleep. Hence taking the time to write this out after midnight. So as of Monday I'll be homebound and happy as can be about it!

Hey Frankie... 3 days!!! :-)

~H-less