My Not So Baby Sister Turns 24

And a Bookish Memory

On the top of The Chief, Squamish, BC

Today, my baby sister, Vanessa turns 24 years old! I can remember so well, begging my mom for a baby sister and then, when I was 5, Vanessa was born. And she cried. A lot! And I'm pretty sure at some point, I asked my mom to return her.

But today, she is my best friend and my most favourite sister ;)  It took a long time to get to this point though. Five years is a big gap in age when you are growing up. Ten year old`s don`t really have a lot in common with 5 year old`s. But 5 year old`s want to be everywhere their ten year old, older sister is. Vanessa was no exception. She wanted to be everywhere I was. I have memories of going down the block to play at a friend`s house, only to have Vanessa show up at the door a few minutes later. When we no longer shared a room, she would beg to sleep with me, and I, being the big, mean older sister, would make her sleep on the floor next to my bed. Which she happily did for what felt like years. (I am so sorry for this!) We played a lot of barbies together, but only on my terms. Vanessa, I know, fondly remembers my favourite barbie game which involved dumping ALL our barbie stuff into one big pile and then re-doling it out by singing the eenie-meenie-miney-moe song for EACH item.

Clearly, my sister LOVED me big time.

But one of my favourite, bookish memories I have of my sister and I is reading books together. Naturally, being 5 years older, I read a lot to Vanessa. Little Critter and The Berenstain Bears books were some of our favourites. What Vanessa probably doesn't remember though, is that I liked to sing these stories to her (and eventually our little brother). At some point, I decided that just reading the stories wasn't fun, so I decided to sing them instead. All this entailed was picking a tune and signing the words to it. What a horrible idea. Vanessa hated it, but I would insist. I was the bigger sister after all. And she put up with it. Thankfully, I grew out of that phase, but I do get an urge once in awhile, like when I am reading a story to my nephews, to ÈsingÈ the book.

Gone are these days of playing barbies and singing stories. We are now both adults, Vanessa in the prime of her twenties, and I, soon to leave them. She`s the one person I can tell anything, and often look to for advice, even though I`m supposed to be the ``wise, older sister``. I like to think our relationship is on more even ground now, now that our age gap doesn't feel so wide, although we both know I`m still the bossy one. 

Sharing a Laugh

My best friend, and Maid of Honor

BFFs

Happy Birthday, little sister!