Grateful Heart Monday - Mika

As you may have read, I spent weekend before last in the Bay Area visiting my sister and her family. 

My sister is 15 years older than me and got married when I was 9. I would spend 2-3 weeks at a time visiting her and her husband all during my middle and high school years. Her husband is a great guy and very good with kids. They had my eldest niece Mika when I was 17 and I was able to spend the first few of months of her life with her (since I graduated high school a month after she was born).

Mika was my princess for nearly 3 years before my other nieces were born (the next two were born 3 months apart, one is Mika’s little sister, and the other my brothers’ daughter). I feel like I have  a special connection with her. She’s 12 now and she is becoming a full blown teenager. I feel like kids are much older these days. 

I love all my nieces dearly and equally, but I think that the few months I spent with Mika gave us a special bond. Now it’s grown because of our common love for the Backstreet Boys. I didn’t even do it! She, on her own, began to listen to them and began loving them just like I did when I was about a year older than she is now. It was nice to spend the weekend listening to their albums and watching videos on YouTube. 

As I boarded the plane to go home I got a text from her saying she wished I was sitting with her watching videos right that moment. On Sunday night she hugged me and called me her best friend. I felt all the feelings right then. 

We spent a big part of the weekend getting ready for my younger nieces’ birthday party. She had a few friends over and they played, watched movies, and ate ice cream. We tried to go bowling but the place was packed and didn’t have lanes available (oh well). We went to a local ice cream parlor right before our flight home to enjoy some sundaes - a tradition of theirs. 

It was a very nice trip. The girls had been coming to spend a week or two with us over their vacations and it was nice. I used to be a teacher so I had the same breaks so I could take them to do different things. Now that I don’t get extended breaks it has become harder, and now that I’m married it will be even harder than ever. As we were leaving Mika asked her dad if they could come spend spring break with us, we’ll see if that happens or not . 

I’m glad I got to spend the weekend with the girls (oh, and I guess my sister and brother-in-law as well).