Older Cousins

I remember how fun it was to get together with cousins growing up--we generally made the hour drive over to Mesa once a month for a gathering. We would all break off into our respective age groups and made ourselves at home at Grandma's house. But there was a period of time--quite a few years, I think--where the thing we wanted to most together was sit around and hold our baby cousins. I remember one year when 7 new babies were born into the family, and those of us who were preteens thought it was the jackpot--because finally there were enough babies for all of us to hold one at the same time!

So when I saw my nieces and nephews pandering to hold the babies, I remembered just how fun it was back in my day. They were doing their best to be careful, and really the only way to learn to  hold a baby is to hold one! They really don't break in any loving jostles they might get from adoring cousins. Alina was lucky enough to be one of the three babies happily passed around between the older cousins.

Just a few pics to capture all that loving charm from her older cousins . . .

The pre-teens and teens seemed to pass around the babies. In fact, they also did a great job of  showing love to David! He figured out that he could get them to carry him around in a sort of chair lift. To put it mildly, he ate that one up!

Sweet Paige likes to sing a song to Alina that she made up, and the lyrics go like this. "Alina, Alina, Alina!" repeated over and over and over again. Paige has shared some of her baby clothes with Alina, and is so cute with her! In fact, I think 3 year old Paige might be one of the next closest girl cousins to Alina's age (besides 2 year old Brynn), so I bet they are just beginning the cousin memories together!

After attending church on Sunday as a large family (we had enough youth from our family present to form their own Sunday School class out on the church lawn, led by none other than Aunt Amy and Aunt Dacia), we gathered for the rest of the day at my parents' home. We had a lovely meal and lots of time together that afternoon. In the evening, we played reverse charades using scripture stories. Again, the teams were broken up by age groups--the adults, the littles, and the teens. During the charades, Alina got passed around between her cousins quite a bit.

I think she really enjoyed all that attention!

I can't say it enough how grateful I am for my children to have such good role models among their cousins. As an added bonus, they also feel so loved in their presence!