Could Your Daughter Be Her New Best Friend?

Meet Our 10-Year-Old Gymnast: She’s Looking for the Perfect Cohousing Friend.

Hi, everybody! I’ve been a member of Cohousing ABQ as far back as I can remember.  My mom grew up in a cohousing community in Austria and she liked it so much she wanted my brother and I to experience it. In cohousing kids are free to run around more, there’s an indoor community space to play in, and in our community a river nearby and outdoor play areas, including a zip line!

However, now that we're getting close to moving in, it turns out there aren’t any kids my age, especially no girls my age! Out of 13 kids, the oldest girl after me is only five years old! So my mom and I decided that I should write about myself in this newsletter and see if there isn’t a girl my age whose mom and dad might consider cohousing because their daughter could have such a fabulous friend!

There’s a reason why my friends would call me “crazy.” I’ll try almost anything to keep from being bored!

So maybe I should tell you a bit about myself. I’m in the 5th grade and English is my favorite subject. One team activity in English has us break into small groups, read sections of a book and then discuss. You get to know more people that way. One thing I don’t like is how much homework we have in 5th grade. I think schoolwork should just be done at school, not at home!

I’m very busy outside of school. I’ve been taking gymnastics since the first grade and dance for the past three years. I like to cook, and sometimes my brother and I have a cooking competition with our parents deciding the winner, like the show Chopped. I also like Project Runway because it’s interesting to see what the competitors come up with in such a short time! I’ve taken up knitting and crocheting myself and just finished making a bag for my brother.

The gymnastics even come out while paddling down the Rio Grande!

I have quite a few friends. Some I’ve known for years, some are newer. We hang out, play with dolls sometimes, dance to music on the bed, jump on trampolines. We laugh at the same things (which is important when you are friends). Sometimes I’ll get bored and want to do something different, and my friends usually follow along. But I can’t stand to be bored!!

Last Easter I raised some baby chicks until they were big enough to pass along to our cohousing friends who raise chickens in their backyard. My newest animal friend is rather unusual. She is about a foot long and seven inches wide, although she’s bigger when she lays with her legs stretched out. It’s my bunny rabbit Pip! Getting a rabbit was my idea, and she is so much fun.

Pip will let me pick her up; not at first but now she’s okay with it. In the evenings, she lays on the bed while my family and I do the New York Times puzzles. Have you ever tried that? It’s fun to do together. I asked my mom about getting a second bunny, and she said only if I was willing to clean the litter box twice as often! So that’s on hold for now. But if you become my friend, I’ll let you come and feed Pip. She is always hungry.

So if you’re around my age and think I sound like someone you’d be friends with, talk to your mom and/or dad about checking us out at cohousingabq.org, or join the next Meet & Greet by clicking the RSVP above. Or, if you’re older and have a daughter close to my age, say 9 to 12, consider if I might just become her best friend ever, and you might find a community of wonderful caring people to be part of your life.

That is my wish. Could you make it come true for me?

Our family takes fun trips together every year. Here we are skiing, and my brother and I playing cards on a beach in Spain.