Mommy in Training

My little niece just LOVES babies, so she has been in Heaven having the twins to dote on this Christmas vacation. Two years ago, she was the flower girl in my oldest son's wedding; now, she's eight (going on twenty-five), and is having a ball playing with and holding his seven-month-old baby girls.

Here she is snuggling Cutie Pie, my studious little granddaughter.

About seven years ago, this niece, along with her mommy and older brother and sister, lived with us for three months, while her daddy was finishing up working in another state and transitioning to a new job and their new house was being built. She was just a baby of fifteen months when she moved in, and we can all still vividly remember her that way. She was the most adorable baby girl, and my husband, the three sons who were still living at home at the time, and I absolutely loved having a wee one in our house again after so many years. And now, unbelievably, she's holding a baby. (And my son's twin girls are in the 97th+ percentile for height and weight, so the babies are almost as big as she is!)

Here's the little mother carrying Cutie Pie, who has some heft to her, as you can see. I mean, that little chunk-a-lunk is a real armful, even for adults. I don't even know if we should allow our eight-year-old niece to do this; she may end up with hefty chiropractor bills down the road!

KK carrying a hefty Cutie pie, who's half as big as she is!

This precocious niece says she can't wait to have babies of her own. As I said, she's eight going on twenty-five. She was talking to us yesterday about how she had a "rough childhood," due to her many falls and trips to the ER for stitches. Apparently, at the ripe old age of eight, she feels she's left her childhood days behind her. Nowadays, she's a mommy in training. And I tell you what, when that little girl grows up and has little ones of her own, she's going to be the best mother in the world.

(Also: Happy Birthday to my baby sister--the only one out of the five siblings in my family who hasn't hit the big Five-O yet. But she only has a year left now before she gets her first mailing from the AARP!)