On being an absent big sister

You know that feeling when you meet someone you've known since they were tiny, and suddenly they're all grown up? Or at least sort-of. I babysat my sister K's 1½ year old daughter today while she took her 6 month son to the doctor's for shots, and I stuck around for dinner and met her step-kids for the first time in forever, and fuck me, it's crazy how much can change in 6 months at that age. Mostly the boy, who'll be 13 in about a month. "Hi!" I said cheerfully when he came through the door, expecting his squeaky child-voice. "Hi!" answered a teen boy I didn't know had materialized. Shock! Σ(゜ロ゜ノ）ノ

It was an Abra, thus in theory rendering the protection totally useless.

I've known him since he was 5 and would beg me to read him stories. I used to be able to trick him into believing that I was a robot, and would break if I had to get in the water when he'd try to make me go swimming with him. Now I saw this tall kid who even looked more mature than I remember. I was impressed, and at the same time a little saddened that the little bugger who would follow me around and talk non-stop about Dragon Ball and gave me a Pokemon card to keep in my wallet 'for my protection' is growing up. Granted, of course he's still a kid now, with a fervor for Gagnam Style and acting cool, but the gap is closing in a way that makes me nostalgic. Fuck, I remember being 13, it was weird and horrible and I wanted to be so adult! I wanted every single older person out there to think I was cool and not a dorky kid. That sucks when you actually are a dorky kid, but hey, I guess everyone is.

One thing that really worried me though - the 9 year old girl. At dinner, she ate a miniscule portion and told me about how she didn't eat all that much in school either, and ended with "and I hardly had any breakfast at all, only some bread with nothing on it." This freaks me out. 9 years old and sounding like that, it's seriously a bad sign. I don't know if it was something new she'd picked up, or something she thought would sound adult and impressive, but it scared me. I tried to explain to her that the body is like a car - it needs fuel, and that if she didn't eat she wouldn't have the energy to do well in school. I don't know if it reached her, but I made sure to tell my sister to keep an eye on her. A warped idea of food and nutrition needs to be nipped early in the bud, lest it turns into something seriously nasty. I wouldn't wish that on anybody in the world, least of all such a sweet kid.

Kids won't always be kids I guess, and as weird as that may feel for me who's known them forever, it's one of those facts of life. I kinda feel like I should make more of an effort to stick around them and not miss major developments like these. Back when they lived 10 minutes away I was over all the time and was like a big sister to them, and I just realized how much I miss that. In any case, I need to take the 1½ year old to a farm or something. While reading a story to her, she'd enthusiastically point to rabbits and yell "Pig!", cats and yell "Duck!", and squirrels and yell "Otter!". City kids, I tell ya.

Pictured: Dog, toddler logic style.