In more realistic family news, I'm again realizing how out-of-shape I am, as my shoulder is still sore from Sunday.

So I have a bunch of nieces, but one trio of sisters is pretty much the core of all my stories. Tuyet (Isabelle) is about six years old now, and she's the con artist/ring leader. Loan (uh, I actually don't know what her white name is) is about three years old and the ultimate middle child--kind of withdrawn until she gets to know you, and used to being ignored. And Trinh (Amy) is about a year old, and she's... well, she's a baby.

So Sunday was Trinh's baptism, which we held at my uncle's house since he has Parkinson's and it's hard for him to get around these days. She slept through the whole thing, which was a pretty amusing thing, but afterward, Trinh's parents (my cousins) went out for a quick shopping trip while there were so many willing relatives around for babysitting duty. So my cousin Hai and I were in the yard playing with Trinh and Loan--Tuyet was inside helping clean up the kitchen--when Hai and Trinh started playing the classic game where someone picks you up and you "jump" reeeeal high. Trinh ate it up, laughing, squealing and kicking all the way.

Then Loan looked up at me, pointed at her little sister, and implored, "I wanna jump toooooo!"--and any reasonable request from my nieces has pretty much never been denied.

Hai pointed at me, laughing. "Mine's lighter!"

Oh boy, was he right.