Who's the hero now?

It's a glamourous life that I lead. Tonight I was a hero to my 6-year-old niece, the most complex 6-year-old I know. She's so thoughtful and has a heart of gold, and is always thinking. She seems to want to do the right thing all the time (except when she's tired and the tears start flowing), and is so darn smart. Her twin sister, on the other hand, has the attention span of a gerbil and has, shall we say, some difficulty focusing. She's definitely off in her own amazing world filled with fairies and mermaids, princesses and ballerinas, and all sorts of other folkloric characters. It seems to me that every other sentence starts with, "Uncle Jeff, pretend that...."

I absolutely adore both my nieces and love the fact that they are bestest of friends and complement each other so well. But back to the complex niece. She had crawled under the desk in the office area and put on her pouty face because her mom had washed the Koala Bear and the head started to come off. This is a very tattered bear and I'm surprised that it survived the machine washing at all, to be honest. Somehow it did, but was in need of some additional TLC. So I hauled all 6'1" of me under that desk and had a tete-a-tete with her, suggesting that I try to fix up Mr. Koala Bear real good. She feebly agreed with a reluctant high-5, and I promised her that I would have him all fixed up by the time she woke up tomorrow morning.

But she's a demanding one, that complex 6-year-old niece of mine: tomorrow was just not good enough for her. In her adorable, yet matter-of-fact, way she pretty much made it clear that the bear better be fixed by the time she went to bed. I protested and said that I would mend him after she went to bed. "But Uncle Jeff," she whispered as she looked imploringly into my eyes, "I sleep with him."

Always trying to be the hero. Always trying to go above and beyond. Always trying to turn frowns into smiles. Isn't that what uncles are for? Well, that's what this one's for. I fixed the bear with some very dodgy sewing. I'm not sure how long Mr. Koala Bear is bound for this world, but he's got a few more sleeps left in him yet. Fixin' bears, playing pirate-and-mermaid, doing arts and crafts, giving piggy-back rides. Damn, it's fun being the hero.