…well not so little anymore!
Hi girls,
So last weekend was my sister’s 21st birthday bash back in my home town of Norwich, Norfolk. It was such an amazing night with family friends I have not seen in years and my sister and her friends (all absolutely lovely) having a fantastic time on the dance floor.
I made a brief speech alongside my dad about how much I love my sister and what an amazing person she has turned out to be. I had to keep it short and sweet because a) I was probably going to start crying in front of 150 people – I cry at everything – and b) I only found out I was doing a speech 10 minutes before so had to call in my best improvising skills!
So I thought I’d do a longer speech on my blog dedicated to my sister Jemima of what I would like to say to her…
So, Jemima, you were born 4 years after me and you were the CHUBBIEST little Michelin toddler with beautiful dark curly hair. As we have discovered from watching back old videos of us as kids, I pretty much ruled you and bossed you about (sorry about that). 
We used to play all sorts of games as kids (I decided them all of course!) like doctors and nurses, shoe shops etc. Your favourite game when you got a bit older was always ‘so we’re sisters and we’ve run away from home and we’re hiding out in the forest where we end up building a big house and live off the food we have found in the forest, just us two forever’ – forever an imaginative drama queen 😉. So imaginative that for something like your 3rd birthday you told mum and dad that you wanted a rainbow. You kept talking about this rainbow for months and you wouldn’t let it go. Our parents didn’t know what to do, they had to give you a rainbow! So for your birthday they did up your bedroom and drew a huge rainbow across your wall, I remember you were so elated and jumping with excitement!
We also used to play Charlie’s Angels where you were Lucy Lu and I was Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz was sometimes there too if we were with a blonde child who could join in. We used to jump off the wall in our old house pretending to fight baddies. You also went through a phase of telling everyone you were a black belt in karate until you started telling smelly boys this in your class and you may have once or twice kicked them so you had to stop.
It’s fair to say you don’t mess with the Waring Sisters 👯 😉. 
Me being a rather shy child in some ways, I was always so amazed by your ability to make friends everywhere we go. We would be on a family holiday, arriving only yesterday, and you would be right in the kids club or play ground making friends with everyone and introducing yourself. I would be with my parents too scared to talk to other kids – pathetic!
You are such a determined, ambitious, opinionated (in a good way!) and strong character and I love you for that, don’t ever change! You weren’t scared of anything sometimes. This is proved in a famous video of us when you were about 3 on a family holiday in France. One day we went to a water park where there was a little slide that went down into the shallow water. I wanted to go down the slide but was too scared (I had a massive fear of slides in general at the time) and debated for a boring amount of time on whether I could do it to the point that you got fed of up of me, couldn’t wait anymore, got in front and went down the slide yourself. You had gone down that slide about a dozen times until I finally found the courage to go down it too (rolling my eyes at myself right now!).
I know I’m the older sister but when we were young, in some ways I looked up to you for being so confident and strong.
I am always amazed at your determination, you know what you want and you make it happen. You worked so incredibly hard at school and you are naturally very clever, getting incredible A-level results and going to your top choice university.
With that said, I can’t write this without mentioning a little bit, the famous Jemima’s hissy fits 😉. Sometimes, as a child (and an adult shhh), you would get a little upset if something had not gone the way you had planned. For example, one time Granny & Grandad picked up you and your friend from school and brought you to Waitrose to buy some food for dinner. You and your friend had decided to bring a change of clothes for after school and got changed in the toilets in Waitrose. However, mum (it was all her fault) forgot to pack you different shoes; ABSOLUTE DISASTER. You had planned to walk out of the toilets in your clothes with your friend but you can’t possibly do that now in your school shoes, how embarrassing! So you spent the entire time while they went shopping for food in Waitrose, crying in the toilets until it was time to leave.
We shared a bedroom for a while and most nights just before bed I would have to hold your ‘blankie’ (still around today, shhh!) out the window so it would be cold because you didn’t like to snuggle ‘blankie’ if he was warm, he HAD to be cold!
See I was kind to you sometimes! Even if I always made you get me a glass of milk like a slave while I was on the sofa watching TV.
We did have our arguments as sisters do but we were and still are always the best of friends as well. We always have our inside jokes and at times we make each other laugh so much. Remember when I used to make you laugh in the shower by pretending to be Mr Bean and scared of water while you were in the bath? You used to find that so hilarious (we were a bit odd).
I am so incredibly proud of everything you have achieved in your life already and what a lovely person you are. As well as being determined etc, you are also incredibly kind, witty, hilarious, beautiful, stylish and good fun. I can’t wait to see what you decide to do after university and whatever it is you are going to do amazing and be super successful, I know that for a fact.
I love you to pieces Jemima ‘Puddle duck’ Waring, forever my little ‘coo-chi’ face and I’m your teddy bear! (Inside joke).
Ps, I’m sorry for almost killing you in a house fire when trying to microwave popcorn in the summer holidays and for being in sick in the back of your car not too long ago, LOVE YOU!
It’s A Girl Thing 