Big Niece Little Niece

I have been an uncle for almost 20 years now.  My first niece was born in 1993 when I was living in Russia.  I didn't meet her until she was 15 months old.  My first nephew was born in 1995.  From 1997 to 2008 my sister and my sisters in law  added 2 more nephews and 4 more nieces to my  collection.  Making me the OctoUncle.  In February 2010, my wife's side of the family cried Uncle, when my wife's sister had her first child, a son.

My sister's 4 children including her oldest, all live near Washington D.C., while the rest of  my nieces and nephews live in the same Midwest state as we do.  This means that I am both a long distance and short distance uncle.  Last year my oldest niece started attending college a few hour away from where we live.  This means we  have seen a bit more of her in the past few years than we usually do.

In fact she was at Thanksgiving on Thursday at my folks  with the rest of her cousins, uncles and aunts.  Today she took a break from her studies and went swimming with me and  kids.  Our kids really like her and she is gracious enough to treat them as equals even though she is now much more adult than kid.

After swimming, Bunnygirl and I traveled to the hospital to visit another niece.  She wasn't sick, just extremely young.  She's also not naive, but she was born yesterday.  My wife spent Black Friday at the hospital helping her sister give birth to a beautiful girl.

When Bunny girl and I got to the hospital, I realized I had not been in the newborn department of that particular hospital since Bunnygirl was born 13 years ago.  The hospital rooms had not changed much.  My BIL and SIL were watching a rerun of Law and Order when we walked in.  I remember Amy and I watching Law and Order reruns there when Bunny girl was an infant.

One thing that had changed is that Bunny, who years ago, looked similar to my newest niece pictured below

.  now does not resemble her new cousin in the slightest.  But she does love her as do we all.