"Happy Birthday Auntie Ba!"

Lucky girl doesn't look a day over eighteen...(jealous?  moi?)

Okay there is a part of me that is doing this because as a big sister I simply can't resist the urge to tease - especially on a such a public scale.  My sister is seriously going to kill me when she reads this blog post (which hopefully she won't do until much later in the day when she has been plied with so many treats and alcoholic beverages that she finds it touching and amusing - as opposed to mortifying and completely uncalled for!)

But you see I simply couldn't let today go by without proclaiming to all and sundry just how fabulous my sister is (and why Egg and Dumpie are the luckiest little boys on the planet to have her as their 'Auntie'....)

Here is my Top Ten List as to WHY Auntie Ba (totally) rules:

1.  Since they were born she has been like a second mother to the monsters (and dare I say it, at times a far superior one - given her untold devotion and insistence on bubble baths and hot meals when I was simply too exhausted to care).

2.  She has kept them from being illiterate and mistakenly corralled into a 'Special Ed' class (it was my sis who first noticed that we had neglected to teach Egg basic counting, letters of the alphabet and to identify colours - too thrilled had we been by Egg's nightly naked post-bath dancing ritual to Goldfrapp's 'Supernature' album that we failed to notice that basic skills were perhaps being ignored.)

3.  She is one of the few people who still willingly accompany me to cafe's without the least show of embarrassment for my particular ordering style and subsequent disgruntled-ness (is that a word?) when my hot beverage is invariably made incorrectly ("Sorry to bother you but there is just a wee bit too much milk in here - so let me tell you again exactly how I would like it done okay?"...)

4.  She never makes fun of me when I purchase yet another 'Ra-ra skirt', despite the fact that I am technically way to old to be wearing one.

5.  She has the most impeccable taste in film and music and is always surprising me with something amazing that I can't believe I've never heard or seen (like the other day when she made me watch the most excellent "Last Night" with Keira Knightly...brilliant film for so many reasons)

6.  She is kindest person I know and gives to a fault - mostly of herself.  If I were to add up the number of hours and days and weeks she has tirelessly stepped in the fill the parenting gap I so often leave open ("Just popping out to the shops for a wee bit"..."Do you mind if I just have a bath?"..."Pretty please could you give Dumpie his fifth bath of the day - I just can't face it"...etc.) I would never show my face in public again for the shame of it.

7.  She has lost count of the number of times one (or both!) of the monsters have crawled into bed with her during the night and crammed their stinky little toes into her face while she pointlessly attempted sleep, made a wee in her bed, or woken her up at the break of dawn to start chatting about which 'treats' they would like her to procure for them that day (in fact Dumpie is currently snoring away in her bed right now...)

8.  She is the one who always finds the BEST presents for birthdays and goes to great lengths to ensure that no one goes to bed on their special day without falling asleep next to the thing they coveted most.  (To that end, Dumpie spent this evening listing possible presents for his Auntie Ba:  "Sparkly shoes...boots...a star dress...a watch...lipstick" etc. but then kind of dropped the ball when he gamely offered up, "A bin?....some hair elastics?")

9.  She is F-ing FUNNY.  End of.  No one can make me laugh like my sister.  She is the wittiest person I know and that's when she's not even trying to be.  She deserves her own comic.  Her insanely hilarious insights are unparalleled and I feel sorry for people who don't have her in their lives on a daily basis and hence aren't privy to her totally unique, utterly spot on and so-funny-they-almost-make-me-wee utterances.

10.  I'd be lost without her.  She is my muse...my rock...my sounding board...my partner in crime...and so much more.  She has been sister, auntie, best friend, marriage therapist, beauty consultant, resident health expert, travel agent, fashion advisor, life coach, confidante, and guardian angel.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTIFUL AUNTIE BA!!

WE LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW...

Mama, Dada, Egg and Dumpie xxxx