Two Mer Sisters Named Amelia

I cannot believe that I'm nearing the end of my second week of holidays already! Time flies. What have I done for the last week and a half? A little bit of this and a little bit of that, I have been busy so I haven't blogged much but I'll try to be a little more regular for the remainder of the summer.

Last Friday I spent the afternoon with Neve. We started our playtime with a swim shortly after I arrived at my parents place where Neve was spending the day with Papa (as per her usual Friday routine). After playing "sister mermaids" for half an hour Neve decided we should call each other Amelia for the rest of the day and I suggested that the Amelias take a trip to the park. Surprisingly 'Amelia' agreed and we ventured off to the nearby school yard where I often played as a kid.

A sweet little girl named Ping ran straight over to us when we stopped by the climbing equipment. You've got to love kids. When Ping asked Neve what her name was her response was to tuck her chin into her chest, scooch closer to me and then growl at poor little Ping. Thankfully Ping wasn't put off by this display of Neveness, she asked Neve a few more questions which received the same growl of a reply... I tried to coax words out of my beautifully stubborn niece but not surprisingly I had no luck. Ping looked at me confused and asked "Why can't her talk?" I couldn't help but laugh.

Ping asked Neve to play with her and suggested a few other things before giving up and focusing her attention on me. She looked up at me with a big smile and proudly announced that she was 5 years old, went to this school and could swing across ALL of the monkey bars. After glancing nervously at the growling girl tucked against my thigh I asked Ping if she would like to show us her very cool talent.

It was Ping's excellent display of monkey bar crossing that caught Neve's attention (as much as she didn't want to watch she couldn't help her eyes from looking in Ping's direction). Before I knew it Neve was chasing after Ping copying her every move, you would have thought the two were old friends. Ping showed Neve how to do a cartwheel, Neve watched carefully and then avoided having to try it herself by announcing "I can do ballet. Want me to teach you ballet?" She then spun around and fell on her butt which threw drew giggles from both girls.

A very sweet moment for me to watch was when Ping suddenly stopped what she was doing and crept closer to Neve. She peered into Neve's face, smiled her beautiful smile and chirped, "You have the same hair as me! You have the same kind of eyes as me too!" Neve smiled back at Ping and said, "Yes, we match."

Ping and her dad left the playground around the same time my dad drove by honking his horn, he surprised Neve and I with ice cream cones to devour before we made the short but hot journey home.

While sitting under the shade of a tree on the playground eating our ice cream Neve asked me if I thought we would see Ping again, she liked her new friend and hoped they could play again. Neve talked about the fun she had had playing with Ping and me and told me, "I was shy and then no more."

I asked her why she had been shy at all and her response made my day: "I didn't want to share you Aunt Jaime."