Cousin Love

Immediately following our sibling love extravaganza, we flew home to welcome Mark's Mom and youngest sisters to our home for a few days.

Mark's Dad was out here for a conference, so the girls came out to:

1) look at fish at the Baltimore National Aquarium

2) walk for miles through as many museums as possible

and 3) watch airplanes take off at Gravelly Point Park

After plugging our ears from the roaring jet planes at Gravelly Point, we all headed up north to visit Mark's sister and family who moved to Buffalo, NY this past year.

[Time out plug for how nice it is to have one immediate family member on the same time zone! No math to make a phone call woot woot! ]

We arrived after a drive through industrial PA and NY, with a totally sick Mama and a recovering Allie. However, Jackson was healthy. And we are SO glad.

Cole and Jackson were born a month apart and have never been entirely healthy while they've been together--usually one of them shows up to family events bearing sickness and a grumpy state of being and of course gives it to the other. We have had glimpses of what could potentially be a great friendship, but never really knew. Since both had horrible respiratory issues the week prior to our trip to Buffalo, their immune systems were bucked up and healthy, and they finally had a chance to bond. And boy did they ever.

Cousins played a major role in the childhood of both Mark and I. To see these two connect was thrilling.

Their carefully constructed three year old sentences complete with high pitched voices were hilarious. Everywhere we went, one of them would say, "Let's hold hands"--and they would.

The funny part was how much they could influence each other--in a really balanced way. Mark caught this video that shows it really well:

.

Of course, they did have additional "playmates" who helped nourish their friendship. Those lucky boys!



Jackson and Cole would have been perfectly happy digging in the sandbox the whole time, but we were not about to pass up all Buffalo has to offer. Palmyra and Toronto both saw the pair strut through with lots of adoring adults behind.

 (picture missing a sleeping baby Samuel who is in the stroller)

When we ventured to Niagara Falls, Cole stayed home to take a nap, and all day Jackson kept asking where he was. We had to make up for the lack of Cole by bringing the bike. Jackson skuuted from the American side all the way over to the edge of the Canadian side turning heads the whole time. But all he wanted to know was where Cole was.

 

By far the best result of the cousin relationship, was Jackson being tutored (by Cole) on how to treat your sibling. Thank you Cole for showing how gentle a big sibling should be--we have a much happier girl as a result!

Oh the secrets these two will share in the future. 

Hopefully it will continue to aid the next set of kissin' cousins with plenty of cousin love.