The Theme of This Post: Cousins

Yesterday I arrived at my cousin's house, welcomed by signs made by two of my favorite little cousins, ages 11 and 6. (I should warn you now that you are going to hear "my cousin" A LOT as I post from Georgia. We are Southern, which means I have 4th cousins I would consider taking a bullet for, meaning we are quite close. The problem is that I had cousins and 2nd cousins and then those cousins had babies and so on and so forth until I have so many cousins that it is very difficult for non-Southerners to keep track. Just warning you now.)

Today, I hung out almost all day with one of my most favorite little boys in the whole world, my cousin Caleb, age 6. He loves it when I give him zerberts, which is what I call it when I blow raspberries on his belly. I don't know why I call it that, I think I got it from The Cosby Show. I used to chase him around and scoop him up in my arms and give him zerberts while he squealed with laughter. Last night when I arrived, he was sitting on the couch with me and then looked up at me and said, "can I have a zerbert?" He got two.

This morning we had a conversation that went like this:

Me: "Caleb, when I lived in Atlanta you were 4 and now you're 6. That's crazy. Can you believe it?"

Caleb: "Yes."

Me: "You're getting so big. How big do you want to get?"

Caleb: "Just this big."

Me: "You don't want to get any bigger?"

Caleb: "No."

Me: "Why not?"

Caleb: "Because I don't want my mommy and daddy to die and I don't want to get too big for you to give me zerberts."

Me: "Caleb, can I eat you up with a spoon?"

Caleb: "No."

Me: "Fair enough."

He and I hung out all morning and then we went to pick up another one of my cousins, one of my other most favorite little boys in the whole world, Christian, age 5. We went to Wal-Mart and they each got to pick a toy with a $10 limit, then we went to play mini-golf, then to the arcade and then to get ice cream. I know I'm a bit biased, but our family? We make great kids. They are so cute and so well-behaved and so sweet. Seriously, you should meet them. You'll have a hard time not pulling out your spoon.

After all the little boy merriment, I got to spend the afternoon hanging out with Christian's mama. Yes, she's another cousin and is personally responsible for giving me three other cousins besides Christian. You following this? She made her latest contribution to the cousin pool three months ago when she had another adorable boy, who I got to meet today. So fricken-fracken cute. As soon as I held him and cuddled him against my chest, he farted on my arm. Hello to you, too. Welcome to the family. You'll fit right in.

I spent the remainder of the evening with my cousin Laura. We are 6 months apart in age and she is one my most favorite people in the whole world. Hi, Laura! I love Laura because we are exact opposites. She is loud and outgoing when I'm usually quiet and shy. She lives life with her heart while I tend to live life with my head. We both want to be more like the other. She and I make each other laugh so crazy hard and I know I could tell her anything and she'll just love me and completely understand. She also somehow manages to bring light and laughter everywhere she goes. How do you do that, Laura? Can you teach me?

If my cousin Windy is reading this, she's wondering why I haven't mentioned her yet. She's Caleb's mama and it was to her house I arrived last night. Windy isn't so much my cousin as she is my big sister. She is one of my biggest cheerleaders and I love her so much it hurts. I don't have any sisters, but I know what it's like to love and be loved like one which is all thanks to Windy. There, Windy, feel better now? Bet you're feeling pretty bad now for wondering where your shout-out was. Let that be a lesson to you.

It was an awesome day and reminded me how much I miss it here. Today was family day, tomorrow is old friends day. Yay for Georgia!