Uncle Joel

**This was supposed to go up Saturday morning. Apparently, I'm not good at those "scheduled" publishing times...

It's his birthday today... yay!  Happy Birthday :)

Here in the Virkler home, Uncle Joel is a super hero of sorts. He is idolized. He is mentioned at least once a day. Liam tries to fact check Aiden sometimes, but has kind of realized that it's impossible by now.

You see...

Aiden will tell just about everyone he meets, that his Uncle Joel eats squids.

And if you are reading a book about gigantic, colossal deep sea squids, Aiden will get all excited and say,

"Uncle Joel ate one of those!"

And Liam will correct him, and say, "No, Uncle Joel didn't eat a squid that big. It wouldn't fit into his belly." But it's in one ear and out the other for Aiden.

Because somehow this...

has transformed into this...

He would make a mighty fine fisherman storyteller ;)

And then, somehow that squid led to octopus... because you know, they both have 8 legs.

And Liam would correct him, "No, Aiden. Uncle Joel ate a squid, not an octopus." And he'll ask me to correct Aiden. And I will tell them that we did see him eat a squid, but we don't know for sure if he ate tako or not. But it wouldn't matter if I told Aiden he was wrong. He would argue until the sun went down.

And... Uncle Joel makes the best airplane noises.

And... Uncle Joel plays soccer.

And... Uncle Joel climbs really big, high, tall mountains.

And... Uncle Joel has a big tv that is the size of the house wall and lets Liam watch stuff on it.

And... Uncle Joel scowls, but is not really upset, because then he laughs.


And the latest...

we were shopping at Target one evening, and we saw a dark African American man, and Aiden got a big huge grin on his face and said...

... you guessed it...

"That guy looks just like Uncle Joel!"

It makes me wonder what Uncle Joel looks like in his mind now. :)