For a long time when my nephew was younger, he believed that I was a child. Because I still lived at home, his natural progression in thought was, "Uncle Paul lives with nana, so he's a kid like me". It became apparent the day we went out on our own and he declared, "We can do whatever we like can't we Unca Paul?" and spat on the ground to prove his point. He was all of 4 at the time. His mum shattered his dreams of me being a big kid however, which disappointed me somewhat. I still remember when he rang up to ask nana if I was allowed to go visit him, hehehe.
My second nephew didn't live with us and for a while it took a bit for me to be close to him. He's a character however. He's just turned 5 and for the last few weeks has had his leg in a cast. That didn't slow him down though. I'd call him Smeagle, the pasty faced character from lord of the rings, he'd creep around on the floor in his cast. I even saw him jump off a swing chair outside so he could "chase" people around.
For his birthday I wrote him a card as you usually do for birthdays. The envelope had a warning. Becareful when opening this card. Inside I got his mum to read it to him.
"If you read this card you'd better get ready to run because Uncle Paul is turning into a Tickle monster behind you..." He turned to look at me and screamed as I reached out to tickle him. I chased him all over the house and terrorised the other kids that were there too. I need to get fitter because I was wrecked afterwards, LOL. Oh to be a kid again and not just a big kid at heart.
