C is for…

is for cousins. Crash and Bang have 6. I have 9 (I think). We don’t know how many DW has. Her dad was one of 17 and her mom was one of 11. That makes 26 aunts and uncles. This gives her 40+ cousins! Since they are spread out all over Canada she’s still meeting some for the first time.

There’s something special about cousins. Perhaps it’s that we don’t live together like siblings do. Perhaps it’s that we all come from the same, often times dysfunctional, families (there is fun in dysfunctional). We can relate. (HAHA, get it? Cousins relate?) Whenever I think of the times we got together with my aunts and uncles and cousins I think of my brother and cousin. Growing up, they fought worse than siblings. Or at least that’s how I remember it. One of them got wacked between the eyes with a golf club by the other. Unintentionally, of course. But still… Today none of that rivalry exists and they are friends.

Crash and Bang adore their cousins. Four of them live a few hours away while two live in South Korea. Bang and his teacher just sent a Flat Stanley to them to tour around and get some photo ops with them. They only just met in person two years ago when we made our trip down to Maryland for the first time since Bang was born. We’re hoping to make down this summer since we didn’t go last. They had great fun meeting and playing. We get to see the four who live nearby three or four times a year. They have a great time playing. They have even started writing to each other. It started as way to trade Pokemon cards. It has evolved into trading hockey cards, creating word puzzles for each other to solve, and good old fashioned update letters. They quickly learned that it’s exciting to get mail.

Cousins share the same forest in the family trees. Some of our family branches are the same, some are different. All of our branches and leaves and even our roots entangle and overlap, yet we remain our own tree. It’s a different kind of bond than we have with adults or siblings. We come from the same family, but different. We are roughly the same age and because of these two factors, we perceive our extended family through the same lens.

Who better to understand the craziness and eccentricities of our family than a cousin?