I won’t embarrass her with pictures here, but today is my niece Regina’s 20th birthday.<\/p>\n
Yikes.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
The one memory I’ll share here is one day when she was maybe a year old, and my sister’s family had come by to visit.<\/p>\n
I had set up the old Avalon Hill War at Sea<\/em> game, and Regina sat on my lap as I played a turn.\u00a0 The British and German navies were attacking each other, and as I rolled the dice, Regina would say, “uh oh” whenever I rolled a ‘5’ (ship damaged\/crippled) and exclaimed “oh no!” whenever I rolled a ‘6’ (ship destroyed\/sunk).<\/p>\n I hadn’t even explained the rules to her.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n In 1999 (I think), my sister called me shortly after the beginning of the Daytona 500.<\/p>\n Maria: What did you teach her? Regina has always been a smart kid.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Last one:<\/p>\n In 1999, I was babysitting at their place, and Regina was sleeping on the couch.\u00a0 I left her alone until she woke up, sat up, and vomited all over her onesie.<\/p>\n Eeeek.<\/p>\n I quickly scooped her up and removed the puked-on garment, found another one, changed her diaper since she had also peed, and dressed her in the other onesie.<\/p>\n I then held onto her until she fell asleep again, and then her parents came home.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Happy Birthday, Regina!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I won’t embarrass her with pictures here, but today is my niece Regina’s 20th birthday. Yikes. — The one memory I’ll share here is one day when she was maybe a year old, and my sister’s family had come by to visit. I had set up the old Avalon Hill War at Sea game, and … <\/p>\n
\nMe: What do you mean?
\nMaria: We were watching the start of the race, they waved the green flag, and Regina said, “Go!”
\nMe (laughing): I didn’t do it.<\/p>\n