How I know I'm an awesome aunt

My nephew is two, and he's the apple of my eye. I have the best time with him, chasing him around the house, tickling him, listening to him laugh. I can't imagine life without him. I like to think I'm a pretty great aunt; Nathan seems to light up when he sees me. But I knew for certain I was doing my job as an aunt when my sister emailed me a few weeks ago and said this: "Nathan and I were watching the news this morning, and suddenly he started yelling 'Look Mommy, Barack Obama! Go Obama!' I knew you would be thrilled."

I was. I have made a point to tell Nathan about things that are going on around us. He likes to look through magazines with me, so when I got my copy of People with the Obama family on it, I told him all about Barack. Clearly it sunk in. The next week after that email, my sister called and told me that on the way home from daycare Nathan had yelled out, "We don't like Sarah Palin!" The child is two years old and can already point out prominent political figures. That makes him better than much of America.

I have also instilled Nathan with an appreciation for sports. I'm by far the biggest sports fan in the house. College basketball is my favorite; when I was even younger than Nathan my father would sit me in front of the tv and talk to me about Carolina basketball games. Since Nathan was born I have made sure that he has had Carolina Tar Heel outfits. Now that he can talk, I have taught him to say "Go Tar Heels!" And today my sister told me that Nathan has fallen in love with his Carolina pull-over and doesn't want to take it off.

Football is my second favorite sport, so Nathan likes to watch Panthers games with me. When they take commercial breaks on FOX they have a robot football player who dances around, and Nathan gets so excited when he sees him.

I like knowing that I'm an influential part of Nathan's life. As I said, the whole reason I am a Tar Heel fan is because of my dad, and no matter what bad blood exists between the two of us now, that connection will always be there. Someday Nathan will be able to say that he's a Tar Heel fan because of his Aunt Laura, and that's pretty special.