My cousin just left for her 6-hour drive home, but we sure had a fabulous time. She’s just a young thing—fifteen years younger than I, but we have lots of fun together. Her dad is actually my second cousin, so we are truly shirt-tale relatives. She’s a whiz at sewing and has far more grey cells working than I do right now, so while she was here she whipped up a valance for our recently finished basement, as well as another sewing project for the basement. We went to the fabric store and once again, I was reminded that I used to have a life (pre-ATN.)


It was a pleasure watching her interact with her two boys this weekend. Her youngest, shown here asleep on my husband’s shoulder while his mom and I walked the dogs, is the picture of a happy, well-attached baby. I snatched the opportunity to point out to Dora last night how she was Darrion’s age when she came to the United States from China. She wasn’t nearly such a happy camper. It surprised her to realize how young she was, and likely physically even smaller than Darrion.


Beth had a swim meet this morning, and she did fabulous. She knocked 11 seconds off her best time in her 100 back and 100 freestyle events, 24 seconds off her 100 butterfly, and 4 seconds off her 50 breast stroke. She makes it look so easy. Afterwards we all went to lunch. While at lunch, we talked about babies, teething, and memories of Kyle and Steph when they were Darrion’s age. I was acutely aware of Beth and Dora’s exclusion from that conversation, and it pained me. As I watched Darrion toddle around this weekend, I wished I could have seen Beth and Dora at that age. I wondered if they were feeling left out? I always wondered this about Amy, but since she never claimed this family, it was all part of the whole sorry big picture … She was left out but it wasn’t necessarily anything we said or did, or didn’t say or didn’t do. I made a point of trying to say something that would include the girls. Just one more aspect of balancing uniquely built families!