Hawaii

A big-house weekend is a weekend at Daddy’s. See, I live in two houses, Mommy’s little house and Daddy’s big house. That is because my parents are divorced. They do not live together anymore. A long time ago, they used to be married. Then we all lived in the big house — Daddy, Mommy, me, and Andrew. (Andrew is my little brother. He is four going on five.) But after awhile Mommy and Daddy decided they did not love each other anymore. They loved Andrew and me very much, but not each other. So they divorced. Daddy stayed in the big house. (He grew up there.) Mommy moved to the little house. She brought Andrew and me with her. The little house is not far from the big house. Both of them are in Stoneybrook, Connecticut.

After awhile an interesting thing happened. Mommy and Daddy got married again, but not to each other. Mommy married Seth. Now he is my stepfather. Daddy married Elizabeth. Now she is my stepmother.

Here are the people in my little-house family: Mommy, Seth, me, Andrew. Plus some pets. We have three. Rocky and Midgie are Seth’s cat and dog. Emily Junior is my rat.

Here are the people in my big-house family: Daddy, Elizabeth, Nannie, Andrew, me, Kristy, Sam, Charlie, David Michael, and Emily Michelle. Our pets are Shannon, Boo-Boo, Crystal Light the Second, and Goldfishie. Nannie is Elizabeth’s mother, so she is my stepgrandmother. Kristy, Sam, Charlie, and David Michael are Elizabeth’s kids, so they are my stepsister and stepbrothers. (Elizabeth was married once before she married Daddy.) Sam and Charlie are big. They go to high school. David Michael is seven like me. Well, actually, he is a few months older, which is important to him, but not to me. Kristy is thirteen, and she is a baby-sitter. I just love Kristy. She is the best big sister I could ever have. She plays with me and takes care of me. And when I am at the little house, she calls me on the phone. Emily Michelle is my adopted sister. She is two and a half. Daddy and Elizabeth adopted her from the country of Vietnam, which is very far away. Mostly Emily is okay, but sometimes she is a pain. (I named my rat after her.) Shannon is David Michael’s puppy, and Boo-Boo is Daddy’s fat old tomcat. Crystal Light the Second and Goldfishie are goldfish. (What a surprise.) They belong to Andrew and me.

Usually, Andrew and I live at Mommy’s house. But every other weekend and on some vacations and holidays we live at Daddy’s. We also live at Daddy’s whenever Mommy and Seth take a vacation. And very soon they were going to Hawaii for two weeks. They had been waiting and waiting for that trip. So had Andrew and I. We just love being at the big house. We could not wait to live there for two weeks. We feel very special at Daddy’s.

Do you know what I call my brother and me? I call us Andrew Two-Two and Karen Two-Two. (I got the idea for those names after Ms. Colman read our class a book called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.) We are two-twos because we have two houses and two families, two mommies and two daddies, two dogs and two cats. Plus, I have two stuffed cats — Goosie at the little house, Moosie at the big house. I have toys and books and clothes at each house. I have my two best friends — Nancy at the little house, Hannie at the big house. And of course I have those two pairs of glasses.

My big-house weekend was going to be gigundoly fun. I would not even mind leaving on Sunday. That was because Andrew and I would go right back on Friday for two whole weeks.