The Sand Pail List

Forget the bucket list. We're at least 50 years from that one. But like our elders, we're facing a certain deadline.

When we got married, I went from zero nieces and nephews to seven in under an hour. Until then, kids - specifically infants, toddlers and preschoolers - were always memories of my last couple of years of middle school. Actually, there's a funny story about my younger brother Chris at age 5 accepting the fate that he'd have to attend Gonzaga because I chose it over Prep. But that's not the point...

I'm the oldest child in my family - the first to do things. Kristin's the youngest and her siblings are 12-18 years older than we are. In many ways, Kristin grew up with in-laws and has been an aunt since well before we started dating.

Looking back, it's kind of funny to see the stages I went through in Sarah's eyes (our oldest niece).

First, I was Kristin's "friend" Mike. Then I was accepted as her boyfriend. By the time we got engaged, Sarah referred to me as "soon-to-be Uncle Mike" and since then it's been a regular back and forth between "Mike" and "Uncle Mike."

But it's different with the younger kids. Kristin's sister Maureen and her husband Billy had Will shortly after we graduated from college. Kristin was living down here in Maryland by then, so Will's grown up with me in the picture. I bring Will up because the last several times we've visited New York, we've stayed at Maureen and Billy's and I've had the opportunity to see what's it's like to hang out with kids who look up to you (and at you - which is a pretty big deal when you're vertically challenged as I am) having known you their entire life. It's kind of like being an older brother, but not really.

So, to the point of this post...

While hanging out with our nieces and nephews, Kristin's siblings have joked about how kids take over lives - a rewarding sacrifice, I can only imagine. Her brother Sean put it best last Christmas when I mentioned that I wanted a Wii for my birthday: "That's my Wii. That's my 47 inch flat panel. That's my Jets season ticket package," he said, pointing to each of his three daughters.

Kristin and I look forward to having our own kids. But, we're 26. We still like the spontaneity of being in our mid-20s.

So, we came up with the idea of the "sand pail list" - a bucket list for married twentysomethings. These are things we want to before we have kids. Places we want to visit; concerts; parties; drinks... We'll roll out the list over the next several weeks and check them off (with full updates) along the way.

Stay tuned.