Another addition to the family

In September of 1993, my younger sis arrived. And it was one heck of a change for me I can tell you !.


Here was another baby and she looked like she was going to get all my attention. For starters, all she did was cry….non-stop, every waking moment, for 6 months straight – but yet she was so cute it was hard to get angry. This was Annie, my forever “older” younger sister.

My true older sister Allison, or a-la-la-la as I called her, would always be my special sister – She was my only sibling to know what life had been like before I came along. She lived through all attention suddenly going to me when I was born and having to share mom and dad with me without ay time to acclimate….. And then she had to adjust to almost everything being dictated by my needs. I’ve wondered sometimes how she managed, but she did, and she was always there for me. We had a connection that no one else will ever know or be able to describe - she was my best friend, my playmate, my protector – and she always will be.

Allison had been named afer family members, a “tradition” inadvertently started by dad’s mom when she named him after family. In Allison’s case, iher name was a derivative of dad’s grandmother and mom’s grandmothers maiden name. When I came along, I was named after a favored cousin, mom’s maiden name, Dad’s middle name (and his mom’s maiden name. As I am sure you noticed, I have two middle names. As soon as mom and dad learned that Annie was on her way, they started to – let’s say “disagree” – about her name. Dad wanted Annie – it was a favorite aunt as well as his mom’s middle birth name… but mom didn’t like it….all she could think of was the comic strip character. Mom would say “Let’s name her Ann and call her Annie” to which dad would say “Let’s name her Annie and call her Annie” . Then mom would say the same thing with another soudalike / spellalike name and dad would respond with the same “Let’s name her Annie and call her Annie”. Then mom would say “let’s give Annie as her middle name and call her Annie” and dad wold say “Let’s name her Annie as the first name and call her Annie, but we could use Annie as the middle name also ….’Annie Annie’… and so it went.. By the way, dad won …..

So Annie, otherwise known as “Eeeeee…..”, was pure competition when she came along. All of a sudden mom had a real newborn to watch after as well as her perpetually 24 month-old newborn (me). It seemed she was always running between us and I don’t know how she did it. My medical issues weren’t getting any easier and I still didn’t crawl or walk, I could just barely sit up. And then I had to be fed … a bit better by now but still an issue. I ate Cherios (did you know they are good because of the hole in the middle – less danger of choking), yogurt and applesauce. That was pretty much it. Everything else either had a texture I disliked, caused me to vomit or I couldn’t eat it since I hadn’t quite mastered chewing yet.

So I was happy, even though I was in that dreaded position of the middle child… and then…..