Friday, June 02, 2006

Fuzzy Red Bathrobe questions and a tribute to Princess Buttgold





How many brothers and sisters do you have?

I have four living sisters, two baby sisters and a brother died. I also have two half brothers and two half sisters.

Are you close to them?

I love them all dearly. I'm only close to one sister now. Time and tide has made some changes.

Are you like them at all?

Oh, yes. We all laugh at anything, we're all scrappy. My sister's grandchildren can't tell us apart. They always come running up to me, calling Grandma! We all read, lots of things.

What is your birth order? Do you feel it affected you at all?

I totally believe in the implications of birth order. I'm the oldest and a true oldest person, bossy, caretaking, and assertive.

About Princess Buttgold: The other night when we had dinner with Shannon and Brian, Shannon asked Sarah about it and she said something like, "well, I'm spoiled and I think people should kiss my butt." That just broke my heart. Because she's not like that and I feel badly that she thinks I do.

She is, however, the quintessential youngest child, I guess. I'm a firm believer in birth order :).

The nickname evolved from my sister's Mexican roommate, who used to say of people, "he thinks his butt is made out of gold." Think Salma Hayek saying that. I loved the sentiment, because we all do occasionally get that misperception.

Sarah was the greatest blessing in my life and we just all adored her and spoiled her rotten. She was showered with positives and over-protected. When she became a teenager, the appellation "Princess Buttgold" sort of evolved because she did have things the other kids didn't. We had more money, less kids at home, that sort of thing. We got a lot of grief from the older kids because we always had sugared cereals, a rare treat for them.

But she's sweet and funny and kind. She's not mean and stuck up, like you would think. I feel that I contributed to her own negative opinion of herself, especially during the wedding of the year debacle and with my postings. Well, wedding are stressful and hers rivaled Princess Di's.

So this is my amends to my darling child and hopefully, a correction of perception. If she's Princess Buttgold, I'm Queen Buttgold.

These are a few pictures of her that I love. The one with the two little girls is a treasure. Keoke, one of the twins, died four years ago in an accident. The prom dress picture is a reminder of how Rowan, our little granddaughter, fell in love with Sarah in her dress. She thought her aunt was the real Sleeping Beauty. The other was taken at a Mother-Daughter function at church. And the flower one, a neighbor took that.

That is Sarah, a fountain of joy for all of us during some dark times. It's a heavy load, but somebody had to do it :).

5 comments:

Starfoxy said...

How many brothers and sisters do you have? I have 2 brothers and 3 sisters.

Are you close to them? Not really, no. I mean, we like eachother when we get together, but we don't talk much otherwise.

Are you like them at all? More than I'd like to admit.

What is your birth order? Do you feel it affected you at all? I'm the youngest. My closest sister is nearly 6 years older than me, while all the rest of them are about 2 years apart. I'm not so sure I have characteristics of the youngest child so much as characteristics of a very brow-beaten only child. After all I did have 7 parents.

I think that "he thinks his butt is made out of gold." will steadily work it's way into my vocabulary. Beautiful sentiment. :)

Unknown said...

I have 2 sisters and 2 brothers (well, and 2 more sisters because my dad and step-mom now have two little girls). Yeah, I would say I'm close to all of them. Not as in talking on the phone every day, or even every week, but when we get together, it's like we weren't even apart. And we are alike. Of course we have some differences, too, but there's no mistaking that we're siblings. I'm the oldest. I'm not very bossy, but I do feel a sense of responsibility and I can take the lead when necessary (though I'd prefer to let someone else). I also feel pressure to "set an example" as the oldest.

a. nonny spouse said...

How many brothers and sisters do you have?
Two of each.

Are you close to them?
On three of four counts, definitely. I remember having a conversation with my younger brother before any of us had gotten married wherein we worried about our siblings marrying people that no one else would like. We shouldn't have worried, it turns out, because we have all manifested excellent taste in spouses (or spice).

My youngest brother is a case unto himself. However, he's only 18 and I expect him to develop some likeable qualities in the near future. He was lucky to graduate from high school today (and his near dropping out multiple times is only of a number of reasons that he annoys me to death).

Are you like them at all?
I think we all have the same sense of humor, but beyond that, not really. We have widely diverging views on politics, the church, entertainment, money, etc.

What is your birth order? Do you feel it affected you at all?
I'm the second, and given the fact that my older sister wasn't exactly in the picture for quite a while, I totally act like an older child--in charge and always right.

Amira said...

I have four sisters and we are all very close even though we don't live near each other. We visit each other as often as we can and we meet once a week to IM.

We're alike in some ways, but in general we're quite different from each other. We all look quite a bit alike, so people assume we're all the same though.

I'm fourth, but I don't know that birth order made a big difference in my family, because my oldest sister is far from a typical oldest child and most of the rest of us were in the middle where birth order is less noticeable.

a. nonny spouse said...

I also meant to add that I think Sarah is beautiful. Great pictures!