Dear MQ,
You are such a cute, sweet and precious little girl. I know I don't see you enough and only really get to interact with you around the holidays, but I think about you quite a bit and think about how you must be doing.
Your mom posts about you on her Facebook and I get to see little glimpses into your everyday life. It makes me miss you a ton and makes me excited to see you and the rest of our big family for the holidays.
What you don't know is that you and I used to ignore each other. I think I was twelve when you were born and my first memory of you was at Thanksgiving when you wanted to chew on everyone's cups. I didn't mean a single thing to you and the feeling was kind of mutual other than the fact that you were a tiny human that had joined the family. You were also the tiniest bit intimidating for some reason.
You pretended to be shy at first and I took that personally as well. I had grown up being the baby of the family so anyone, including your mom who married into the family, was just seen as another cousin to me. Family included everyone and I think it's the same for you, too.
When we really became close was one time when all the family got together in the summer. You and I were swimming in the pool(you were four) and there was another little girl named Isabelle there. You got our names mixed up and at one point you shot your arms out at me and yelled, "Annabelle." My name has now been changed for the whole family. I wouldn't have it any other way!
Now we play hide and seek, color in books, talk about goats and get into lots of trouble at the dessert table! Those chocolate chip cookies are just a little too tempting at the moment. You remind me a lot of myself when I was your age. Even though you're so stinking cute, you're a little sneaky and know a lot more than others think you do.
The one thing I want you to remember is to try not to please everyone. You are so sweet and compassionate and I'm worried that you will spend so much time trying to please others that you won't think about yourself. It's a big struggle to learn this but I can promise we will have these talks again.
Sometimes I fantasize about how close we may be when you grow older. I hope I can be a role model for you or whatever you need me to be: friend, sister, shoulder to cry on? You name it!
My heart leaps every time you run to hug me and I love when we spend time together around the holidays. Soon when the twins and all the other little ones grow, they'll become your best friends too, if not already. I can't wait to make more memories with you and I hope that you don't grow too quickly! Slow down, little girl!
Love you always,
"Annabelle"