It’s always neat when my 9-year-old niece and 5-year-old niece & nephew come to town. They show me life from a completely different perspective – shorter to be sure, but also joyous, rambunctious, silly-funny, and completely lacking in social inhibitions.

I also love how Bean blossoms in their company from a quiet, serious baby into the tiniest member of the gang, screeching rapturously at the sight of them, and pulling their patient hair in delight.

My sister and I took the kids to the Lawrence Hall of Science in the hills of Berkeley with stunning views of the bay and beyond on an utterly gorgeous November day that makes you forget it is ever anything other than golden summer in California. Sister + kids + view of San Francisco gleaming in the distance = utter shukr (gratitude).

We also took them to the Golden Gate Park Playground with its beautiful old wooden carousel. After listening to (but not intervening in) hair-raising negotiations for swings between my shy niece and the two girls already on the swings I came to the understanding that it’s a Lilliputian Lord of the Flies out there.

Later, sitting in a silent corporate office while we ordered custom-made jeans that we scored a bargain on, my 9-year-old niece turned to me & asked in the high-decibel volume that children routinely use even when you are sitting right next to them, “So Khala Baraka, have you ever drank your own breast milk?”

The question echoed across the room, my eyebrows froze in place, and though no one turned toward us you could feel all ears perking up for the answer.

Questions like that will wake an office up faster than any afternoon coffee break.

I love these kids.

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