Day 60: Love Those Cousins

Posted by: Cris

Tonight I am hopeful that day 60 will end up meaning we are a third of the way (at least) to Emilie being on her way home. As seemingly smooth as things have been going, I can assure you that it is at least partially (if not predominantly) a mirage. We have our good days and our bad days but even on our best days, the three of us miss Emilie like crazy and just can't be totally happy until she's back.

I'm thankful though for the things that help make those good days more frequent...like the cousins in Juneau & Nova's lives that they absolutely love. We get to go back to Hawaii before long and spend lots more great time with Melody and this past week, the girls were so happy to spend so much time with Secily, Micah, Kaleb and Hope.

The majority of our time here in Ohio has been spent at my sister's house so the endless attention from Alex, Lyndsey and Brent has given Juneau & Nova so much joy that I can't even put into words how thankful I am that they love their cousins so much.

Brent has pretty much mastered any difficulty of lego project that exists so this year for Christmas, Coral and Ed got him a Rube Goldberg contraption which he still had put together and operational in less than 24 hours. Juneau is always happy to have a helping hand with getting ready to go - in this case, shoeing up to go to the basketball game tonight.

Brent is always ready to play along with (and even help come up with ideas for) whatever pretend game the girls are playing - in this case, something necessitated making a bed on the coffee table.

Lyndsey has even taken to carrying pop-pops in her pocket when we go out.

Very occasionally, Coral, Alex and Lyndsey get a moment to catch their breath before...

...the craziness starts again.

The dry weather has Nova's poor little cheeks all windburned and chapped but she is still having fun.

Let the Wild Rumpus Start!!

Cap the night off with some Buzz Lightyear jumps off the couch...

"To Infinity and Beyond" - Juneau with some serious hangtime.

Even Alex joined in on the Buzz Lightyear fun:

When it's time to finally calm down (which generally takes much longer than you'd expect), Juneau & Nova love to cuddle up on the beanbag with Alex & Lyndsey.

It is funny that 10 years after my sister went through having twin girls, I ended up with my pseudo-twin girls but it has provided Juneau & Nova with great cousins for them to look up to as they grow up.

I am extremely thankful for all of the cousins that enrich my girls lives so much and help distract them from any unhappiness that might arise during this time without their mommy.