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.