Ok, so I started this thing in a time of "transition" so I have not written very much. But, alas, I have found time to write and as I sign on I see that I had started a story about my niece months ago...It's about time I published it.
My niece, Kelsey, is very smart. And, she has recently become one of the millions of devastated three-year-olds all over the world who have been thrown from the center of attention and now stand on the outside looking in at a brand new baby sister named Caitlyn. Everyone pattted my three-year-old niece on the head when the baby was born and asked her if she was happy to be a big sister. She didn't answer at first. She would only stare blankly back at you with her blue eyes opened wide and her tiny little mouth shaped in a perfect O.
But as the weeks drug on Kelsey discovered that being a "big sister" stinks. Suddenly, her mom had to feed the baby and change the baby and burp the baby and rock the baby and her mother's entire day was filled with nothing but the baby. And just as she figured out how awful big sisterhood really was -- everyone had stopped asking her how she felt.
Everyone oohed and awed over those tiny little hands and those tiny little feet. And everyone gasped at the sight of those tiny blue eyes on the rare occasion that they were open. Each person studied Caitlyn's little features to discover who she might look like. My niece couldn't make sense of it. This baby girl didn't look like anyone...least of all HER, which is what she heard her nana say to her mom.
So, being the smart little girl that she is, Kelsey came up with a great plan. She decided to wait for the perfect time to put her plan to action.
That perfect time came when my sister had taken both girls shopping. The baby girl wanted to eat and that meant that the baby must eat right away. My niece had to wait, her own stomach rumbling and her mother telling her that she can't have the last of her sweettarts before lunch. She sat there pouting, crying from time to time so that her mom would not forget she was unhappy about the whole situation. Then it happened -- the moment she had been waiting for. The baby girl pooped. But it was not just any kind of poop because that would not have been special at all...no, this was projectile poop and it covered her mom from head to toe. Her mom was, of course, completely grossed out. But what can you do? The baby girl is, afterall, only three weeks old. So, she cleaned it up as well as she could with a pile of wipes and they headed home.
"That was gross, mom" Kelsey said. "Yes it was." she agreed.
After a few moments my niece took a deep breath. "We should take her to the doctor..."
Her mom was so proud. Kelsey was acting concerned for Caitlyn and my sister started to say something when...
My niece looked at her mom in the rear view mirror and said, "We could leave her there and get a dog."
Shocked and at the same time amused, my sister replied, "But mommy loves Caitlyn."
"Yeah but I like dogs," my niece said simply.
My sister did not reply and my niece knew that the argument was over. She looked at that baby girl sitting in the car seat beside hers. The car seat that used to BE hers. And she knew that it was inevitable that the baby girl would be a part of their life forever.
Later my niece explained to me that they had to keep Caitlyn. She simply stated with a sigh, "Mom loves her."
I told her, "Maybe one day you'll love her too." With that, she ran to her toys tired of talking about the baby girl and wishing that life would just go back to normal.
