Next week I'll housesit for a couple days, keeping an eye on my brother's family pets: two dogs, Calvin and Josie, a hairless cat, Dongua, and a guinea pig . . . whose name I never learned.

Last night I became acquainted with these various animals and saw my niece and nephew. My nephew, 5, goes shirtless these days to show off his, er, muscles. Although he had just seen Spirit: Wild Horse of the Cimarron, it was nonstop Spider-man talk while I was there. He plastered Spider-man stickers on the kitchen table, made a Spider-man from Play-doh®, and donned black gloves so he could catch me in his web. And he hadn't even seen the movie yet.

My niece, all of 9 adorable months old, gawked at me shamelessly and gummed her carrots. Then I carried her around and let her pull my hair until -- this is a little embarrassing -- my arm got too tired. New moms must have killer biceps! Then she beamed at me from her little roller-chair-walker-thingy (picture the Flintstones' car) and tried to pull me around the kitchen by my shoelace.

And to think, I started this day by stepping jauntily out of my apartment building, kissing my boyfriend goodbye, and walking into a lamppost. I clocked my head real good -- E didn't see it but he heard the thunk of impact. Which left an impressive lump, considering I wasn't walking that fast.