Letter to the Kid #5

Someday Kid, if you're lucky, you will have a little brother or sister.

I'm so lucky I have THREE. Two little sisters and a little brother, who is the littlest.

When your little, you may tend to argue and disagree a bit and there may event be pulling of hair although you'll be the big brother so it wouldn't really be fair to beat your little sisters or brothers up. If you continue, however, to act like your mom as you are right now (so I hear mister candies-need-to-be-organised-before-eaten) you will be a great big brother.

You will also have fun moments. Keeping each other company on long road trips in the car playing the license plate game or the alphabet game with countries then animals then food then..well, anything..because road trips can be long and if your dad is anything like my dad there is no stopping to go pee..ever...you should be okay because girl bladders tend to be worse but I feel for your little siblings if they're sisters.

There will be Christmas traditions, birthday must-dos, anniversary celebrations - I would suggest not forgetting your parents anniversary as it tends to be a big deal - although you will probably not get into as much trouble as many of your friends because between me and you, your mom is pretty cool about that kind of thing. Just don't forget her birthday.

When you grow up, (yes, someday you will be MUCH bigger than you are now and you will have to do thing all for yourself and let me tell you, it can suck sometimes so don't go rushing yourself to become a big boy, even if you're dying for a big boy bed, just milk it a little longer) you will start to appreciate each other so much more than you can imagine.

Suddenly, the fact that you all share the same DNA and that one day you will together care for the parents that for so many years have cared for you will fill you with this intense wholeness, indescribable with words.

Being the oldest, you will be protective. Boys are usually more protective however I'm a girl and I'm pretty protective. And bossy. And kinda a control freak. But enough about me.

There will be grown up events that will happen. All of a sudden, people will graduate from school, buy a house, get married, even have a little Kid of their own - not necessarily in this order but it will all happen.

When my oldest younger sister got engaged, I was half expecting it but I was still so so so so excited. I also didn't find out until about 6 days after they were engaged because I was lying on a beach in Tunisia and didn't leave a number where anyone could reach me. This is never a good idea and I for one am usually quite good at 'checking in'. It's just better to be that kind of person, Kid, so then if anything were to go wrong, people could call the police right away because 'A would never not leave a number'. Again, digressing.

I got a shock this morning that I really wasn't prepared for.

My youngest younger sister left a frantic message at 5am.

Of course I thought the worst. You will, Kid, you will totally think something absolutely terrible has happened, especially if you're miles away AND if you're the oldest. You're definitely the oldest but not sure if that mom of yours will let you go miles away, at least not for very long and maybe only if it's Paris because then she'll have a great place to visit.

I'm just going to come out and say it.

My youngest younger sister is engaged.

You may not have seen it Kid, mostly because you're too little to probably understand big people movies but let's pretend you HAVE seen the Father of the Bride.

And you know that part, again Kid, pretending that you do know that part, where the daughter tells the father that she's getting married and he sees her talking as a 6 year old girl?

I guess that was the first thing I saw. My 6 year old sister telling me she's engaged.

I had thought about what I would feel when C got engaged, if only because she had been talking about it before she even met K.

I had not thought about this. I had not really prepared.

I'm so so so so happy she's in love. I can't wait to meet her dreamy P.

But I tell you T, if he breaks her heart, I'll break him...all..of..him. (Kid, that sounds very Arnnie Swartz or Die Hard or Lethal Weapon or something but I have looked at this sentence for a long time and feel that is the only way I can truly express myself today.)

And that, Kid, is what happens when you're the biggest. And you thought closing the cupboards that Daddy leaves open was a chore. Just wait.

************

Congratulations to the sweetest littlest sister a girl could have. Can't wait to see it on video. What a great way to capture it.