When You're the Best of Friends...

"When you're the best of friends,
Having so much fun together,
You're not even aware, you're such a funny pair.
You're the best of friends."

My nephew just turned three in October.  He might as well speak Dutch because I can't understand him half the time.  Sounds and syllables never quite come out like they should and most of the time you have to ask him to repeat himself at least three times before it dawns on you what he's saying.  Or you just smile and nod and he goes on his merry way. 
 
If there was ever a little boy, it's Rocco, for he is surely all boy.  I don't think I've ever met a kid who likes to wrestle as much as he does.  And it doesn't matter who.  He's convinced, I think, that he can knock my dad over and take him out with one punch to the belly.  The other day we were playing around and he asked me if I wanted to wrestle.  My mom overheard him and she half-jokingly said, "Now, Rocco - there's no wrestling in this house."  He then proceeds to get the saddest face you have ever seen, sticks his lip out, looks like he's about to cry, walks over to the couch and says, "Ohhhhh, man!" He then flings himself down on the couch, with his nose stuck in the cushions, acting like it's the end of the world.  I had to work so hard at stifling my laughter. 
 
But the other day was probably the most precious moment I've ever had with him.  We were waiting on the extended family to arrive to celebrate Christmas (we do it a week early so that we have half-a-chance of actually getting everybody in one location on the same day).  So, to kill time we decide to build a tent, using the back of the couch and the living room railing as our means of support.  I fling a blanket over top of everything, hang another small blanket on the side so we could have a door, and voila! a tent.  We crawl underneath and stuff some pillows in so we can lay down.  Rocco's laying (lying? Sorry, Mrs. Faulk, I can still never remember the difference despite your best efforts in 7th and 8th grade English) next to me and we're just real quiet for a moment.  And then he rolls over to look at me and touches me on the arm, saying so sincerely, with his big brown eyes fixed on mine:
 
"Tortney, you're my vwery best fwend."
 
Nearly made me cry my eyes out right there.  The most precious thing I've encountered in awhile.  
 
But the moment was quickly forgotten in his mind as people began streaming in the door.  
 
But not for me.  It's one I'll cherish for a long time to come.