When asked if being around a little kid every day is fun, exciting, annoying, aggravating, or just unexplanatory, all I say is yes. See, I have a little sister who is exactly nineteen days shy of being fourteen years younger than me. I was born Oct. 27, 1996, she was born Oct. 8, 2010; 13 years, 11 months, two weeks, and five days after me. It was a bit of a shock to realize how much of a difference in age we were once I had added it all up. This added to the feeling of excitement, but also annoyance that was brought along with having a sibling. I’ve spent just about every day with her in the almost four years that she has been in existence and let me tell you, a lot goes on in four years.

Before I start rambling on about my sister and our experiences so far let me make one thing very clear: even though she annoys me down to the end of every single nerve in my body at times, she is still going to forever be my little Izziebelle (That’s what she calls herself).

Izzie has been a colorful present to this family ever since we all found out my mom was pregnant during the summer before my eighth grade year. It was a mind bending experience. I mean, think about it.

One minute you’re an only child who’s just buying donuts at Heaven Scent bakery with your parents before you go help your grandma move and the next you’re being told you’re going to be getting a sibling around your birthday….who wouldn’t start trying to figure out a million different things then and feel their mind just do flips as they try to get things straight?

Even though I was still processing the fact I was now going to have the sibling I had been wanting from age five to age eight, I was still able to enjoy just about every single moment of it. Watching my mom’s stomach grow as Izabelle did was just pure amazingness.

This child was amazing me before she could even see! I would sit there and watch her kick around sometimes and other times I would sit there and just hold my hands on my mom’s stomach so I could feel Izzie.

As time has progressed from the days of feeling Izzie grow in my mom’s stomach, she still ceases to amaze me. She has grown so much since the first day and it’s oh-so-captivating.

One of the memories I have that are very clear is the day we brought her home. She was all wrapped up in her blankies inside of her pumpkin seat (car seat) and sound asleep. As soon as we walked in the door, our dog Caesar started sniffing her like crazy.

He licked her face a few times too and Izzie’s facial reactions to that were priceless. her face was full of confusion and surprise as he gave her kisses. It was adorable as can be. Now since she’s older, it’s progressed from confusion to need.

Izzie constantly goes to Caesar to try and get him to give her kisses because she thinks they are one of the funniest things on this earth. However, Caesar thinks different. He seems quite annoyed by her a lot of the time now because he’s an old, grumpy man. Izzie doesn’t care about that though.

Even when Izzie can tell Caesar is upset with her, she will hug onto him and not let go. It’s adorable in the sense that I feel bad for caesar, but also can’t help but melt at the fact that she’s already so attached to my dog.

Izzie always tries to share her toys with Caesar by dressing him up with her bead necklaces and hats. For example, during St. Patrick’s Day weekend, she took her new three-leaf-clover head band and stuck it straight on Caesar’s head because she had seen me put his doggy bow-tie on him. It made all of us laugh because Caesar had this look of “Why me? Why must she always torture me with these things?” while Izzie had this expression of achievement.

Even though I may become done with Izzie a good portion of the time, I will make sure to keep in mind how blessed I am to have such a wonderful little girl as my very special little sister. And as she grows, I hope to be able to collect all of her funny moments and share them with the world.