Notes from my niece

My niece and I have been exchanging a journal here recently. It's something I have done with several groups of friends, all of us maintaining long-distance friendships. One person will write in it, send it off, next person writes in it and sends it off, and so on. Well, it dawned on me one day that I should do that with my niece. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner considering I'm almost done with my time here in Missouri, but nevertheless, I figure it's never too late to start.

So I had this journal custom-made awhile back from Snapfish with a picture of my niece and I. Lots of blank pages with plenty of room to fill it with stories, questions, and thoughts. It's already made several rounds between her and I, but this last one particularly made me laugh. In my previous entry to her, I asked her if there was anything in the world she wanted to be when she grew up, what would it be?

Her response went something to the effect of, "I miss you lots, wish you were here...now about that question of yours." Typical fashion for my niece to be very straight-forward. She responded that she would like to be a baby-sitter (spelled baby-siter in her words). She then said, "Now I have some questions for you." She then proceeds to give me a series of math equations. I was little perplexed by that, feeling like I had asked one of the most profound questions of childhood and she responds with a series of math equations. But that's okay - I answered her math equations anyways.

What was particularly funny about that, however, I discovered through a conversation with my mom that before my niece began writing this entry, she bounced into the kitchen at our house and asked my mom, "Now, what's harder - being a realtor or babysitter?" She seemed to be very concerned about determining which was harder. My mom responded that for my niece in particular, likely the realtor job would be harder because it deals with finances and such. So my niece decided baby-sitter it is.

My next question to her is "What is your favorite animal and why?" I wonder if she'll ask my mom this time around, "Which is prettier - a horse or a dog?" If only as adults we had questions like that.