Fifteen years ago, I spent Halloween night at a family friend’s house. All I remember is a girl dressing up in a green M&Ms costume, knocking on the door and begging us for candy. Cannibal! What a strange holiday.
The reason I was at their house was because my parents were at the hospital. My mom was on her way to being not pregnant anymore. Some few hours later on Novemeber 1, my sweet sister Olivia was born. She is the most uniquely minded individual that I know. She is very strange. She loves to read. She is freakishly dramatic. She makes me laugh. She is stubborn. She is is creative. She is beautiful.
There are many memories that I could share with you. But in the interest of time (and not boring you with billions of stories that you probably don’t really care about), I’ll keep it to a minimum.
Olivia and I used to share a room. We had bunk beds, the kind with a twin on top of a double. I, being older and wiser, got the bottom bunk. I quickly learned that this may not have been the wisest of moves.
One night, she wanted to stay up late reading. I wanted to go to sleep. I asked her to turn her light off. She said she would if I would get her a flashlight. Sneaky little booger. I went in to my parents room and grabbed the only one I could find: a mag light. I’m pretty sure those suckers weigh equal to a small planet. That night, I slept diagonally with my head sticking out from beneath her bunk.
At approximately 4am, I awoke very suddenly to what I believed was someone punching me in the face. My brother needs to get a life. My stomach lurched thinking someone was in my room as I sat up to find a light being cast on the wall opposite me. After I was finally able to calm down, I saw the mag light on the floor, battery almost dead.
I had a black eye for two weeks.
There was another night where I woke up to a steady pitter patter on my bed. I rolled over in a whirl to discover a pant-less little Olivia standing on my bed, peeing. OLIVIA!!! GO PEE IN YOUR OWN BED! The bathroom is a mere five steps across the hall. Apparently, it’s more time-efficient to take off your pants and go pee on someone else’s bed.
I have been peed on, thrown up on, and given black eyes because of that child on the top bunk. Yet something in my twisted brain wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Happy Birthday Olivia! I love you!
Gotta admit, I was glad when I could give you girls separate rooms. ;)
The way you tell these things make me laugh. (: