Happy Birthday Anna!

Today is my niece’s fourth birthday! She is out of school according to my brother, at her age my guess is that it was preschool. What a cool way to kick off the Summer for her. School ends and then your birthday rolls around. Then again, my brother Brian (her dad) says the semeters for elementary and secondary schools end later than what we grew up with downstate. 
 
Unlike Nick, I have never met Anna but she sounds like a real treat. One afternoon I was talking to Brian over the phone and I did hear her screaming in the background. Thankfully it wasn’t pain or danger, just Anna being her hellion self according to Brian. That’s a relief. I was afraid he’d get a pass on Nick being such a well-behaved child. Since we could be difficult children with our parents (their claim not mine), the Universe would be completely unfair if my brother didn’t have his patience tried once in a while. 
 
Her card is going to be late because this dumb uncle misplaced it and got distracted by other local events. I’m thinking of getting her a subscription to the Nickelodeon magazine to help her reading skills. Kids become more interested in abilities they need when it’s wrapped up in things they like and understand. Otherwise reading and violin lessons (she received one as a Christmas present) are torture, laborious and uncool, not mention all the complaining parents receive. Linda (her mom) said she’s in Dora the Explorer like many children her age. I wonder how Anna knows about Dora when my brother blocked out all the cool channels on the cable to keep the kids from watching TV?