Priceless

Yesterday we were gifted some time with some extended family.  Ed's cousin and her family were in town for the state baseketball tournament...and we got to have some cousin time.  I am not sure the official relation that their kids are to our kids--- second cousins...or something. But because of Easter and Thanksgiving celebrations, Charley has grown to LOVE these "cousins." 

He talks dreamily about them. 

He talks confidently abou them.

He talks proudly of them.

He remembers little details (face shape, games, shoes, etc).

And to get them in his own house for a whole night was pure heaven.

They are older than him (three of them are) and they are amazing kids.  Instead of being bored or ignoring the little five year old that says silly things and bounces around with tons of energy - they give him 100% of their attention.  They make him feel special.  They make him glow!

When the boys were playing Mario Bros. Racing game on the Wii the boys asked Charley what place he came in...Charley quietly replied, 12th ...which is last.  But his two "big" cousins replied, "good job!" and I literally saw Charley stand up straighter and smile a little more proudly.  This quote made me think of how valuable his relationship is with his extended cousins.

The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people - no mere father and mother - as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born. ~Pearl S. Buck

I will encourage him to grab up any great role models he can in his life - and from this one family he has 4 to learn from.

Thanks for the visit! Come again ANYTIME!
FOR. REAL.