My sweet little Katie-bug. She has the most unfortunate luck of being the middle child. For a long time, she was my youngest, but I panicked at the thought of both my girls being in school this year and somehow Jedi-mind-tricked Richard into having just one more...
which resulted in this little gem.
Yeah. He sure is a gem and we're all so very happy that he's in our lives. (I joke, I joke. He is a blessing. He is. HE IS. Why are you all looking at me like that?)
So Katie has Charlie (the blessing) as a baby brother and Maddie as an older sister. Now it's not always easy being the younger sister to Maddie because Maddie's older, and faster, and stronger, and smarter and doesn't hide the fact that she is to Katie.
There are days when Katie asks why she isn't as good as Maddie.
And I always give her the same answer, "Because she's two years older than you are, honey."
But that never seems to make her feel any better. And I should know. I'm a middle child in the exact same scenario as Kate. I could never understand the reasoning either until I was much, much older.
But today was different.
Ho-ho! She moved up another level in gymnastics. Now she's TWO levels ahead of her big sister and her big sister is less than thrilled. Being the diplomatic mother that I am, I consoled Maddie by telling her that she'll move up a level soon. But for some reason, I don't think she bought that line either.
As i was telling my eldest to try harder in practices, my inner thought was screaming, "WAY TO GO, KATE! I'M SO PROUD OF YOU! SEE? THERE IS SOMETHING YOU'RE BETTER AT THAN YOUR BIG SISTER"
But that was probably the middle child in me doing all the yelling.
:)