Since we didn’t go to the last birthday party, we are definitely coming to the birthday party that M’s aunt is throwing for her oldest, tomorrow. (Shit! I just realized I better get the other girl a present, too, especially since we missed her party and now we’re coming to her sister’s!) This time I was proactive in getting the date and time (although we were invited, the details remained sketchy til the day before), and I then offered to pick up M’s sister A, who we visited last week, and bring her, since I didn’t think her dad would bring her to this one since he took her to the last one.
So I spent the day wondering what to get a 9-year-old girl. Her mom texted me a few suggestions, but the toy store I was in didn’t have them so I did some googling about 9-year-old girl gift ideas, and made sure I also got a chapter book and a tween journal, to encourage reading and writing. I’m always the auntie who buys books!
So now I am being trusted to take M’s sister with me to the aunt’s, and she feels kind of like my little niece. I mean, she’s my daughter’s sister, how can I not feel at least that connected?! Sister #1 (the 12 or maybe 13-year-old) will also be there, and we will be meeting her for the first time! I’m not sure that she saw M even as a newborn baby. So we will have sister #1, sister #3, and M (sister #4). We are missing sister #2, who was adopted by paternal relatives and lives in Texas. That’s all I know and all the info I’ve been able to get. Would love a last name to search for them, and see if they want sibling contact, but no luck so far. It feels like a miracle getting three of the four girls in the same room! There is one boy and another boy on the way. I texted Cindy to let her know I’d try to get a pic of the girls together and send it to her, and she was really happy about that.
Then there are the twenty-bajillion cousins. Aunt K’s oldest two (with the recent birthdays) stick out in my mind, but there’s dozens more. So added to M’s five siblings, my own bio niece, my two closest friends’ kids… I feel like I have about 46 nieces and nephews.
Maybe I should just set a precedent of sticking a $10 bill in everyone’s card and call it a day…
Mother of All Things 
What a whirlwind! I’m a book giver too. Don’t go over board or you will be trying to match it with every kid every year. Book and $10? Or book and $10 gift card to a toy stoy so you know that money will go toward the kid?
Good ideas!