“Cousins”

19/05/15

As I child, I spent a lot of time with my cousins (on my mums side of the family). Our family was close, and lived fairly closely together, so we saw quite a lot of one another, normally at our nan and granddads house, but also we had a lot of days out together, too. There was my Auntie M’s three kids and my Uncle D’s son; they were much closer in age to one another than to me – N is the eldest, then D, then the twins R and J, and I was 8 years younger than the twins. Still, I remember all of them playing with me and we were more like siblings than cousins for a long time. I have fond memories of that time.

When I found out my sister in law was pregnant with my nephew A, I was thrilled. He was born in June 2011, two months before J’s first birthday, and I was so pleased they’d be close in age and hoped they’d be able to enjoy a close friendship as I’d enjoyed with my cousins. It is, so far, working out well – there is a large distance between our families physically, but when we get the chance to spend time together the boys are great friends.

My sister in law is up for a short visit at the moment, and we made arrangements for myself and J to go round to my mum in laws house after school today for tea. I deliberately didn’t tell J until we were on our way home from school, as otherwise he’d have been miles too excited and it would have set me up for a problematic evening! We got there around half four, and the boys had fun playing with the Lego before tea; after finishing off turkey dinosaurs and smiley faces (a firm favourite of J’s) they went out in the garden to run off some excess energy – and I took this snap, which I love. I think it captures the friendship between them well; and I couldn’t be happier that J has a cousin close in age and he can experience that friendship.

Of course now the family has been added to with my sister in laws daughter, A, and on my side of the family my brother has his daughter, who has recently celebrated her first birthday, so they are all fairly close in age – certainly closer than I was with my cousins – and I look forward to many more days with them all playing together.

Today was the first day of my annual leave, and to round it off with a lovely visit like that really put the cherry on top. J had a bit of a fit when we were leaving, but it wasn’t a major meltdown and it was quickly and easily contained and dealt with, and we were merrily on our way. What a fantastic start to my time off work. Let’s hope it continues!

Peace, Love & Smiley Faces,

Mummy P

xxx