Sisters

Waiting at for the Play Parade at California Adventure with Aunt Anne

I am number 6 of 7 kids, which are broken up into "the 4 older kids" and "the 3 little kids" due to a 3-year gap.  Even though I was part of the 3 little kids, I felt much more comfortable with the 4 older ones.  My sister Anne, pictured above, and my younger brother Andrew, of Steampunk Nintendo fame, were partners in crime and I was the odd man out.

They were always off lighting toilet seats on fire (true story) or whatever, and I was left to... I don't know, ride my bike by myself to swim team or read Anne of Green Gables again.  I don't ever remember fighting with them, except one time at school when I passed Anne and her friends in the hall and she... well, since this is a post about how we're friends now, let's just let that one go.  The point is that we lived parallel lives, never doing those things that you picture sisters doing together (laughing, gossiping, doing each other's hair, playing, etc.)

I read in Nurtureshock that siblings with cool relationships tend to stay that way; if you weren't friends when you were kids, you won't be friends when you grow up.  I'm glad that Anne and I have defied statistics and have become friends as adults.  She calls me to chat on her way home from work, and I call her when I need to figure out what I'm going to make for dinner.

So while I worry about my girls being friends when they're little, I don't stress too much, because they'll figure it out eventually.


*Note: I just remembered another time I fought with Anne.  It was right in the middle of The Clapper craze of the 90's and she had gotten one for Christmas or something.  I was so mad about who knows what that I went into her room and started yelling.  The volume of my voice starting flicking the lights on and off, which made Anne laugh which made me even madder.  It's finally starting to be funny... after 20 years.