Cousins

Owen Anthony Spagnolo

As I held my brand new, teeny-tiny, oh-so-cute, Jake-look-alike nephew this afternoon, I couldn't help but take a little stroll down memory lane. The first lane I went down I am sure you can predict...to 8 months ago when my own little angels were themselves teeny-tiny, itty-bitty little creatures. Seeing Owen Anthony in all his tiny perfection really hammered home how incredibly fast baby-hood goes. The past 8-months seem both like an eternity, and like the blink of an eye. I miss how miniature and precious my girls were when they were born, and at the same time cannot wait for every new milestone. Maybe that's why I am so persistant with the camera...it gives me a way to freeze time, while celebrating all their changes too. Now J & L are embarking on the same journey, and I could not be happier for them (I'll just keep reminding them that "it goes so fast" over and over like a broken record!).

Then, once I stopped feeling weepy about my rapidly aging 8-month-olds, I thought about Owen in a different light...as A & L's cousin. I think that the cousin relationship is one of the best ever. To me, having cousins my age made family vacations feel like summer camp, and made holiday gatherings feel magical. Some of my very best memories are of times spent with cousins, on both sides of the family. Almost every trip as a child involved cousins...a trip to Priest Lake meant Mary, Lisa, and Jenny. A trip to Sacramento meant Tara, Mark, and Rachel. Seeing Uncle Bob meant Kim and Melanie. And those were just the cousins that were the same age! It seems like there was a never-ending supply of cousins to hang with - the benefit of being from a large family on both sides. And while I know that my girls will never have the chance of even getting near the number of cousins that we've been blessed with, I am so extremely excited to watch them grown up with Owen, and I hope that all of them will make some of their own "best" memories with each other.  So, to ALL of my many many cousins, I say thanks for the memories!! Love you all.


P.S. One of my all-time favorite cousin memories is being in the little upstairs playroom at Grandpa Frank's house, with the Benutty kids, when we were calling everyone by their backwards name and giving them little characters. I was Airda, which is atrocious, but the game was fun. I don't know why, but that memory pops in to my head quite a bit, and it makes me smile without fail.

Team Bubba

Over the last couple of weeks, the girls really seem to have bonded. I think they're BFF's now. They go on little mischievous missions together...dog hunting is a favorite, as is peeking into the laundry room when I accidentally leave that door open for longer than 5 seconds (same goes for the pantry...and the dishwasher, come to think of it!). Whenever one appears to have come across something interesting, the other is sure to come investigate (and steal, if appropriate). It's quite cute.

Now that they're into EVERYTHING, and together all the time, we've all taken to calling them "bubba's" when we need to address them as a unit. Which I started, and am ok with. But I think maybe we need something more creative, like one of those clever celebrity-type mashup names for them - you know, just so we're not so generic.

Auren?
Avren?
Lavery?
Laurery?

Hmmm. Those don't exactly roll of the tongue like I'd hoped. Maybe I'll go even simpler.

AL.

It's good, right?

"AL! Stop eating the dog toys!"
"AL! Stop standing up in the bath!"
"AL! PLEASE stop throwing your sippy cups on the floor!"

Why yes, I think that'll work. (And don't worry, I'm not ignoring their individuality. There will still be plenty of times to use their own names. "Avery, stop pulling your sisters hair." "Lauren, stop stealing your sisters binky." See?)

A few of their favorite activities:


Doorstop doinging






Kissing



Dog Hunting



Wrestling (Ok, this is a favorite of Avery's...Lauren's not really a fan!)




Hangin' out at the activity table




Visiting the dogs in jail



Standing by the chair (that they REFUSE to sit in, but LOVE to stand on!)



Hanging out by the back door together



Climbing the stairs



Miss Piggy

As I wiped off the prune-unibrow off of Lauren's face today, I paused for a moment for a quick comparison.

Lauren:
Oatmeal in both nostrils
Prunes in her eyebrows
Applesauce spread from cheek to cheek
Both hands covered in goo
High chair slimed
Bib coated in lunch

Avery:
Several small food smears where the spoon caught some drips
Almost clean bib
Clean high chair
Hands untouched by food

Although this is a thrice-daily demonstration of one of their many differences, it still amuses me to no end that I've got a Miss Piggy and a neatnik.

In other developments this week:

- Both of the bubba's can now climb all the way to the top of the stairs, which they would do all day if I'd let them! It's cute, in a very scary way :)

- Lauren has decided that, at least sometimes, crawling the normal way is more advantageous than her usual butt-scoot, and employs it when speed is of the essence (like when a particularly tantalizing toy is brought out!).

- Lauren has also started handing out b's and g's, and although her usage of consonants is still minimal, I am happy with anything at this point that's not a vowel!

- I've resorted to purchasing a baby-sleep book in the hopes of finding some answers to Avery's current non-sleeping issue. Having been spoiled by the girls sleeping for 8-10 hours at night for a few months, having a relapse to terrible sleeping is quite a shock to the system, and we're into our 2nd month of it with no improvement on our own, so let's hope the "experts" can give us some good advice! 

Never a dull moment in the Cays household!

Milestones

If separation anxiety is a milestone, then I've been misled. I thought all milestones were cute.

According to my weekly development email, Lauren has made a "big cognitive step" this week. I guess that's the nicest way to describe a phase that is not exactly pleasant. I'm diagnosing Lauren with an early-ish case of separation anxiety, which considering the amount of time I spend with her, is really quite silly! For her, the "symptoms" are sobbing every time I leave the room, and (slowly) following me around to cling at my legs and cry. 

I guess I should just feel lucky that only Lauren appears to have entered this stage, and not Avery too. I'm sure she'll follow soon enough, and then I'll have two babies who protest any time I dare walk to the far side of the kitchen island, so I should just enjoy Avery's indifference while it lasts!