Young-uns

I love watching youngun's. We don't have kids, but I have a ton of great nieces and nephews and they are a joy. Most really young kids are afraid of me. I'm guessing it's the beard, but it could be most anything. But when they get up to about a year or two in age, they warm right up because I'm always goosing, teasing, and funning with them.
My niece Danielle was an exception. I was away in the Army when she was born and when she saw me for the first time when I came home, I had a mustache and I was wearing a big Panama hat. She recoiled in horror and I'm not sure she has fully recovered even today. Her youngest child Zoe, on the other hand, seems to really like me.
Every time I call my sister Mary Lois (Zoe's Grandmother) Zoe gets on the phone and tells me the news. She has a few missing teeth missing but strangely enough, I can understand what she is saying.
Yesterday at the family reunion, there were a bunch of kids gathered. Zoe, Rachael, and Celeste (shown above) played on the tire swing in my sister's back yard, until they were as red as a beat.
Had the reunion been at my house, I would have tickled them silly, pumped them full of candy and soft drinks, hosed them down in the back yard and then sent them home with their parents.
It's probably a good thing that we didn't have kids.