For those of you who don’t know me too well, I am an only child. Whilst I have a large family, I don’t have immediate siblings, but this has never been much of an issue for me.

When I got married, I gained two siblings. My sister in law Angela, and brother in law Paul. As mentioned in past posts, Paul is serving in the military in South Korea, and Angela and her husband live down in the South of England.

When baby bear and little chick were around 3, Angela and Gordon gave us the happy news that they were expecting a little bundle of their own.

On 29th February 2000 Twiglet (obviously a nickname) entered the World.

Immediately I was in love. She was a beautiful happy baby, with the sweetest eyes and smile. She captured my heart from the first moment of meeting her.

Now, being a leap year baby means that she only gets to celebrate her actual birthday every four years. Whilst this is certainly novel, it means that for 3 years you don’t get to have a proper birthday. This has never stopped Twiglet from making the most of her birthdays, sometimes dragging them out for a couple of days!

This year is a leap year, and marks Twiglet turning 16. A milestone birthday for anyone, but even more so when you only get to do it every 4 years.

Over the 16 years, she has grown into a beautiful, bright, eloquent and amazing girl. Her kind heart, quick wit and personality have developed, and she really is the type of girl anyone would be proud to call family.

She is a whizz with a camera, and music comes so easily to her, with piano and guitar skills I envy. She has a lovely singing voice, yet she never lets any of us hear her!

She left her family for a month and trekked to Peru, taking cold showers, eating Quinoa every day and helping at a primary school for under-privileged children. She really is someone I admire very much, for someone so young.

Due to the similarity in ages between her and my two children, they have grown together, shared fun and secrets and taken holidays together.

Certainly they have grown closer, the older they have become. When younger, two would gang up against one, and the combination of the two was very fluid. Now they are more like the three musketeers. One for all, and all for one!

I have no doubt that if one of them had a problem, the others would be there for them. And not always agreeing with their options and choices.

Twiglet has never been shy on giving her opinion, standing up for herself and others. This is another thing I admire in her. Certainly at 16 I had no idea of who I was, let alone what my views and ideas were.

Children grow up so very quickly, and in the blink of an eye they have gone from being in a pram, to toddling, to wearing high heels and socialising. Everything is so rapid nowadays, that it is hard to appreciate how quickly someone is growing and changing.

I am lucky that due to the family bonds we have, I have always been included and involved in Twiglets life. I have cuddled her, read to her, watched her ballet recitals, danced with her and teased and tickled her. And now I have seen her turn into the most amazing young woman.

I know that in the next few months she will be taking her GCSE exams. I have no doubt that she will apply herself, and end up with the results she quite rightly deserves.

The world truly is her oyster, and I believe she will achieve great things.

Happy (4th) Birthday Twiglet. Sweet Sixteen is an amazing age. Enjoy every second, and remember that you have an Auntie (amongst others) who loves you to pieces.

Now stop reading this and Go out there and grab your dreams!