My niece has been visiting us since last week. Even though my daughter and my niece are 6 1/2 years apart, they get along great. My daughter thinks her older cousin is the coolest thing since the iPad. To give you an example, we went back-to-school shopping at the mall the other day. When my niece told my daughter that skinny jeans are "in," my daughter immediately required me to buy her two pairs. I have to admit that she does look exceptionally cute in them. She still wants to wear mostly dresses, but pants are starting to creep in from time to time. I think if her cousin told her that all the cool kids are wearing cabbage leaves as hats, I'd be buying those, too.
By the way, if you are over 30 and want to feel REALLY old, let a 13-year-old girl watch you send a text message. I had this experience the other day. My niece was so distraught over my slowness that her thumbs started twitching and a bead of sweat formed on her lip. My sister told me that Blondie even dials the home phone with both thumbs. When I dial a phone number, it's with my right thumb exclusively. My left thumb would not even know how to get involved in that.
We've had a lot of fun during Blondie's visit. I'm still short on time so I'm going to do some shameless photo-sharing here:
