kissin cousins

are you close to your cousins? did you grow up together? do you keep in touch, share stories and secrets, consider yourself great friends?



i am sorry to say that i didn't really grow up close to my cousins. i only have a couple on my mom's side, and they live in arizona, and on my dad's side there are tons but they are mostly either much older or much younger than us. we weren't together enough to get used to hanging out a lot and i'm sure proximity also plays a big part. they are great people but, besides family events, we unfortunately don't really make it a point to get together.

however, i do have four siblings that i am super super close to, as you have probably gathered :)
so needless to say, i really want our kids to be close too. 
i want them to be real friends, to hang out together with great enthusiasm, to trust each other and truly know each other through and through.


utah checking out his stripes:


to you parents out there: is that something you can orchestrate?
i know you can't force kids to like each other, but if you get the cousins together all the time, will they naturally play well together?
i know my brother matt's three kids have over thirty cousins on their mom's side, and it seems like when they all get together they are a big, happy, wild, playful bunch. i'm sure there are probably nuances and favorites, but overall they seem to really love being together.

i hope the beatty side will eventually have a (smaller) band of kidlets like that. i can't wait!



lucy and utah are going to be the same age for half the year! hard to imagine right now while he's so tiny and she's so big, but he'll probably outgrow her. i like to wonder what their relationship will be like, and for that matter, what their personalities will be like. right now it seems like he is a pretty serious little guy who is distinguished in tastes and loves music, with a quiet little smile on the ready. lucy is curious, observant, excitable and cheerful. how will they interact; how will they compliment each other? will they enjoy some of the same activities? will they tease each other, make mischief together? one thing i know, they'll both enjoy camping!




we are trying to start them early on adventures together! 
though right now it just might be walks around downtown nevada city :)



so tell me all your cousin stories!

Comments

Celeste said…
I think that there is a good chance that they'll be close if they grow up together. My daughter and nephew, despite being six years apart, just dote on each other.
March 26, 2013 at 8:39 PM
Anonymous said…
People you see all the time while growing up always become special in your life just because they're always there, you share the experience and no matter how close you become that's something very special.
I had cousins who i could only see once a year and there was a language barrier. When we met it was as if no time had passed. Probably because we were kids and we just played but also because my parents would talk about them and we looked at pictures and so they were people who mattered even when we didn't see them. We're not very close now because we still live far away from each other, but we stay in touch.
/alice
March 26, 2013 at 10:45 PM
hillary said…
My daughter is two years younger and five months older than her two cousins. Despite different temperaments and interests they are thick as thieves. I would venture to say that her same age cousin (a boy) is her very best friend.
March 26, 2013 at 11:26 PM
Joanne said…
My grandmother and her two brothers were triplets, born in 1908. And although I don't really keep in contact with my first cousins, strangely, I am really close with my second cousins (granddaughters and grandsons of my grandmother's brothers) as though somehow some triplet bond travelled down the line and kept us together. We all love music and the outdoors, even though we're all very different characters, and we have long conversations about philosophy and food and travel. I spent time with all my cousins as a child but it was our common interests as adults that really brought us together. I often stop by our great-grandparents' gravestone and marvel at how we all came from this couple :) Be warned though- we spend a good deal of our time bitching happily about our parents, ha!
March 27, 2013 at 4:19 AM
Sadhbh @ Where Wishes Come From said…
I am super close to my cousins on my Mama's side. There are lots of us and we see each other regularly. Most of us live in Ireland but several live in London and I'm actually just back from visiting them! I have one cousin who I would consider one of my very best friends, even though she lives in London and we only see each other once or twice a year. It's very different on my husbands side, he was a 'surprise' baby and there is a huge age-gap between himself and his cousins. His nieces and nephews are more like cousins to him and their kids are more like cousins to our little ones.
My girls have only 1 first cousin but lots of second cousins in their age group - in fact we are having a 'family only' birthday party for them next week and there will be 12 kids!(11 of them under age 4!!)

Cousins are great and you do right to nurture their bond!

P.S. Hello! I have been reading since just before your beautiful baby came along - I've been meaning to say hi for ages - so Hi!! xx
March 27, 2013 at 5:15 AM
Anonymous said…
utah looks so much like his daddy! awwww!

"lucky" is the word that comes to mind whenever i think of you and your close knit life and family. lucy, LUCKY girl, will be inheriting that!

i was close to my cousins as a kid, but we parted ways as teens. now that we all have kids, we get together and the kids love each other, but our own relationships are still somewhat shallow. still, those extended family gatherings with a bunch of mischief makers your own age were always the best. can't wait to see what trouble your littles get into! xo
March 27, 2013 at 9:02 AM
Amy Beatty said…
you already know i was best friends with my cousins and we are all still very close and i still consider them best friends but my real favs are my sibs now. I can remember fighting with glory and my mom would always say - just wait.. you guys will be best friends when your older :) we thought she was crazy, not that we hated each other or anything, but best friends seemed like a stretch. I love those babies more than anything and i'm sooo happy i get to be in their lifes and watch them grow and develop. I love being a auntie and I'm super stoked to have cousins on the beatty side. dream come true for all of us xoxox oo and i still get together with my cousins and our kids think they are all cousins ;) not that you have to have blood related fam. I also love those we claim as family.
March 27, 2013 at 12:53 PM
Tina Dawn said…
We Gold Country Girls have four first cousins, all girls, two of them (one who is 9 days older than me) lived all their lives in Wisconsin, far from us in California. We still consider ourselves close. I am best friends with my Dad's youngest first cousin, she is only 1 year older than me, since I was the oldest in my family, and she was the youngest of five, her mom was my grandma's youngest sister. She lives in Southern California but we always spent Easter vacations and part of each summer together. Sometimes I went there and we would go to the beach and Disneyland, and sometimes she would come here and we would go to the river and walk the streets of Placerville. She would always cry when I left and cry when she left to go home. I wanted to keep her! LOL. I think your new batch of cousins are going to be just fine! I love the pictures of them together, Lucy is sure a happy little girl, isn't she? Love T
March 28, 2013 at 9:07 AM
Milla said…
Being a only child, and having a mom who frequently relied on family for childcare, I grew up close to my cousins, particularly my aunt's daughters and particularly the youngest, who was only a year older than me. In many ways She's as close as I have to a sister, though there's been long time during which our lives have taken us on different paths.

Our family is really small so it's only natural that us kids of the same age were close and hung out, yet at the same time, cousinhood is not like siblinghood in that you're not "forced" to spend time together and we are pretty far flung. Still when we do get together it's like we were never apart.

So I'm sure that you guyses kidlets will be really tight. It's fun to see these two feel out the waters of friendship already ;)

Happy spring!
April 1, 2013 at 12:42 PM
Teeny said…
My babes have lots of cousins. And they love each other. There is something special about cousin friendship; especially when they're still young. The kids pick up on the bond that comes from their parents being siblings. They know that brothers and sisters are special....and therefore cousins are extra special kinds of friends; that you always love because you're family. Well, that's how I look at it. We have a really big extended family, and the Samoan side in particular are affectionate - even if you've just met...as family....you're immediately kissed and included. I especially appreciate this custom when it comes to some of my uber-cute dude-second cousins. hehehehe free kisses. I jest! kinda.
April 1, 2013 at 11:36 PM
Anonymous said…
I love my cousins! They are sisters to me. I'm so thankful they are in my life I love them so much. These are my mom's sister's daughters. My dad's side, I'm not as close to those cousins, but when I was a child we were all close in age, so I have tons of memories. Best friends back then :)
April 21, 2013 at 9:45 PM
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