After a couple of difficult weeks, K’s niece (KA) came to stay with us for nine days, providing us with a very welcome distraction from our grief over the miscarriage.
KA is ten years old, and I was definitely nervous before she came. I had never been around a ten year old girl for a prolonged period of time, and kept wondering: what the heck makes a ten year old girl tick? Of course I was once a ten year old girl, but I can't for the life of me remember what I liked to do back then. What daunted me is that she is in this awkward tween stage; you can't neatly fit her into any category. She's not yet in the brooding/moody teenage stage that I'm so dreading, but pass the enthusiastic/fascination-filled preschool stage.
Happy to say, the visit has been going well and the mystery of tweens has been unraveled. She enjoys swimming. Running through the sprinklers. Singing karaoke (yes, I’ve got a machine at home and we pulled out songs that we can all could sing: "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Amazing Grace," which, by the way, is a painfully long song when you can’t sing well). And when all else fails, we will either put on Hannah Montana or she will pull out her hand-held Nintendo. All is good.
Even happier, KA absolutely adores EB and despite their seven year age difference, they get along perfectly. There are moments when their age difference made things a bit difficult. Like when EB had a complete melt down during an otherwise fun mini-golf game because she did not get a nap in, or when KA was bored to tears during the long car ride because all EB wanted to watch was Curious George. But all in all, it has been a good visit so far.
And in a way, KA’s visit has provided me with some comfort. I know that EB and her future sibling, whenever that happens for us, will not be as close in age as we would’ve hoped for. But, seeing KA and EB this week, I take comfort in knowing that despite their age difference, they still spend time together, look out for one another and get a lot out of interactions with one another.
