Lucky girls (Alternate post title: I'm jealous of my daughter!)

And no, it’s not because pretty soon she’ll have more clothes than me.

When I think back on my life, especially as I was growing up, I realize that I have very little to complain about. I had a great childhood with parents who did everything they could to make sure Jake and I were happy and well-adjusted. We did lots of things together as a family and we also had many friends in our life who became like family to us. Sometimes we’d even spend holidays with these friends and take vacations together. I learned early-on to think of close friends as part of my family, which is something I continue to do as an adult and it’s a lesson I’m very grateful for.

That said, I never knew any of my cousins or extended family very well. We lived in Georgia and almost all of our family lives in Illinois. Maybe it was the distance or even just the sheer number (I have at least 15 first cousins), but my brother and I really never got to know any of our cousins too well. As a child, I remember being jealous of people with cousins, even though I had some. I thought it would be so cool to have a relationship with someone your age who felt like a sister or brother....BUT (and here’s the real beauty of it) you wouldn’t have to share a bathroom with this kid or fight over who gets to read the back of the cereal box at breakfast in the morning. You could spend the day making up dance routines or building forts and when you got sick of each other then your cousin would go home to her own bathroom and cereal box. The other great part of having cousins, in my opinion, would be that you wouldn’t have to make as many excuses for your parents’ embarrassing behavior. It would be safe to assume that because your cousin had been exposed to your parents’ behavior for years now, that it should be slightly less mortifying to them than it would be to a casually-observing friend. After all, they were your cousin’s aunt or uncle so, in theory, your cousin should share in some of the embarrassment too, right?

Anyway, I never got to live out any of these cousin fantasies. But Mackenzie will, and I’m jealous of her and thrilled for her! She’s lucky enough to already have Ella, who is just over year older than her and will no doubt school her in the ways of getting anything she wants at any time she wants it. That, along with many other things that only an older cousin can teach the younger one. But now, she’s also got Baby Girl T! These two little girls have already gone through so much together that I can hardly believe they still have an entire lifetime ahead of them to share. I have visions of propping them up on each other as they pose for their first cousin photo together. And I can’t wait until they discover each other....playing and laughing and developing their own language, which I am absolutely positive they will do. I’ve already happily accepted the role of ‘bad guy’ because I know Colin and Mike will have a hard time ever saying no to these two. One cute little girl is bad enough, but how do you stand a chance against your niece and daughter acting cute in tandem? Poor guys. I could go on about birthday parties and dance classes and grandma/mom/daughter trips that I see in our futures, but I guess that’s why I have this blog so I’ll stop for now:) But I will say that I do plan on having extra cereal boxes on hand.