My 10-year-old stepdaughter, The Munchkin, has arrived from her hometown near the east coast.  She will be here for four weeks.  I am so excited!  The 4-year-old knows her well from her twice-yearly visits and talks about how much she misses her all the time, so I knew exactly how she would react.  I wasn't so sure about how the 21-month-old would respond, though.  She's too young to remember much from the week Munchkin was here at Christmas time and she's a bit reserved around new people until she sizes them up.  Boy, it didn't take her but two minutes to warm right up!  24 hours into the visit they were like three peas in a pod.  Jealousy and dissent?  Of course.  After all, they are sisters.  But that's the best part.  E and I have partnered with Munchkin's mom to foster a relationship of true family between these girls.  We all agree that us adults do have an expiration date-- which would leave these girls (especially Munchkin, who is her mother's only child) with a need to be able to rely on family of their own generation.  I believe that philosophy has helped us put aside any petty issues that come up in order to maintain the convoluted familial bond anchored by the sisterhood shared by these girls.  Them needing each other and deserving to be able to be close is impossible to argue with.  It's the great equalizer in this situation.  
    They wear me out when they are together.  They remind me whenever I have considered the possibility of having a third child that I already have three.  If I had another baby, twice a year we'd require a bigger car.  And a whole lot more caffeine.  I don't know if that's even possible.

CL