Cousinly Love

I grew up surrounded by extended family.  Aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, and more cousins.  My cousins were my playmates when I was little.  My cousins were bridesmaids in my wedding.  As an adult, I count my cousins as my very best friends.  I have a lot of cousins on my mom's side of the family- but on my dad's side, only six.  Four live in Oregon, and two live in Germany.  As you might imagine, we don't get to see each other very often.  When we do, an amazing phenomenon occurs.  It's like no time has passed at all between visits, and also like we haven't grown up.  We run around and play hide and seek in the middle of the night.  We wrestle and engage in horseplay and drive people crazy who are trying to sleep.  We dance and listen to the band of the moment over and over and over.  We crash around 3 am, huddled together in sleeping bags on the floor.  It's magical, and it's a experience I've always hoped my kids would share.

So when we went to Oregon recently for a family reunion, and I got to see five of my six cousins, along with their combined four children, who are second cousins to my kids, I had high hopes for instantaneous bonding between the "little cousins."  I was not disappointed.

My cousins' children wholeheartedly accepted Valentino and Victoria into their tight little circle.  They range in age from approximately 11 to 15 and they embraced their little cousins from the second they saw them.  The girls played with Victoria's hair, swung her around in circles, and fed her freshly picked fruits.  The boy cousin carried my Tino around for one piggyback ride after another, introduced him to new building blocks and other toys, and played with him to his little heart's content.  It was a beautiful thing to see.

An unexpected discovery was that I completely trusted the four teenaged cousins to take excellent care of my little Vs.  They were often out of my line of sight or hearing, and I didn't worry even the tiniest bit because I knew those kids were crazy about my little ones and would never let any harm come to them.

Some pics of our many adventures:

The girls helped the V's swing from a tree.  Believe it or not, this is a new experience for them.  Swinging, they have done.  But not from a tree.

Cousinly love...

Tino learned where carrots come from.  My aunt has an amazing garden replete with flowering shrubs, mature trees, and of greatest interest to the V's, berries and a vegetable garden.  The kids had a lot of fun picking their own food and eating it.

We went to the river, another thing you don't hear people say too often in Phoenix.

We went berry picking, a time-honored tradition for us cousins.

Tino built a track for rolling marbles.  

We spent lots and lots of time in the beautiful garden.

For me, this trip was possibly the best one ever.  Any time with my Oregon cousins is always full of joy for me.  It's also a space where I feel completely, unconditionally loved and accepted for who I am.  This time, I had the added benefit of getting to know one of my German cousins as an adult.  H and I had not seen each other since 1984, when I was 11 and he was 6 years old.  What a lovely person he has grown up to be.  

And most of all, witnessing my little V's falling in love with their own generation of cousins, and finding that same love, acceptance, and joy was everything I could have hoped and dreamed it would be.