Love

I was watching a ridiculous show tonight where these guys were singing to a girl a song from The Lion King asking her "Can you feel the love tonight?" Painfully embarrassing for them, but it took me back to the first time a boy asked me that question.
I was 19...he was 4. On the way home from Target- he leaned forward from the backseat- sticking his pudgy face right by my seat and as the Elton John version of the song played on the radio, he solemnly asked me, "Aunt B, can you feel the love tonight?" And you know, in that moment, I really could.
Trent is my sister's first child and my first opportunity to be an aunt. I didn't know what to expect when he was born. I only knew as we counted down the days to his arrival- I could hardly wait. I remember borrowing money to go use the payphone(yes, it was that long ago) during lunch to check in with Leigh and make sure I hadn't missed the big event in the few hours I'd been locked away at school. And then when he came- going on mundane errands with her just to help hold him while she was in line at the bank or buying groceries. I was in love.
He was no teeny little thing- starting out at over 9 pounds. And his presence was even bigger. He never slowed down with the growing,either. He was grossly unaware of his size. As he got older and there were more sisters and cousins to play with, Trent never realized how much bigger he was and would squeeze into tiny little spaces during hide and seek that would inevitably end in him being stuck, or more often, him breaking the whatever he squeezed under, on, or between.
But I didn't care that he broke something every time he stepped foot in my house. He was too cute for me to care about stuff that could be replaced.
And now he's old enough to be one of the boys singing to the girl on this stupid show. He's still no teeny thing- hitting right around 6'3" - but he will always be the first boy to really steal my heart and hopefully, for his own sake, I will be the only girl he ever quotes The Lion King to.