Rosie #2 -- Growing

So there was Rosie, with a little ocean-wave of hair down the middle of her head, turning Arwen into a big sister. And they LOVED being sisters right away. I can remember stepping into the (tiny) living room from the (even tinier) kitchen, and seeing two-year-old Arwen sitting on six-month-old Rosie's tummy bouncing up and down! But before I could put and end to this obvious demonstration of sibling rivalry, I realized -- Rosie was laughing!! She thought this was fun. Of course I persuaded Arwen to entertain the baby a little less physically, but there's really been no change; the both LOVE each other's company. In fact, as you can gather from reading Arwen's blog, they even now, as married women, live only about 5 miles from each other. Rosie's husband "Anthony" is from Idaho, and his whole enormous extended family lives there, but he knew thew was no hope of taking Rosie that far from Arwen. (Besides, he likes it here :-) )

Rosie has always been the most photogenic of my children, mostly because she is the one who looks most like my husband's side of the family. (If you want some idea, go see her wedding pictures on Arwen's blog!) And her personality has been as pretty as her face. I don't remember fighting much with her, either, except about keeping her room clean. But she was the first of our children to be grounded, after breaking the city curfew with friends (she was at an approved sleepover, but they decided to go to the store, and then to the waterfront, where they got noisy) and wound up having to call home from the police station. At four AM. Luckily my husband is an early riser and was semi-conscious, but it was a big shock. Arwen never got into trouble!

Fortunately, the cure for this trouble was as simple as avoiding some less-than-helpful "friends". I'm not sure what Rosie thought about this, as I never asked her, but she was obedient, and anyway, she was about to have a pivotal change in her way of thinking. But that's tomorrow's post.