Cousin-y Cuteness

It's amazing what 9 hours and 45 minutes of sleep will do for you. Well, that and turning in a humongo project. I feel like a human again. Or at least, I see what a human could feel like and I might be heading in that direction.

So can you see just exactly how cute these two little boys are!??!?!?!

This is Conor and Carter at our local park and Dave is standing behind me making a googly face. I've never seen Conor like another little one as much as he likes Carter. From dawn until dusk (and often for hours afterwards), these two had fun with each other. We shall only briefly mention the Debacle of the Nap which involved standing, nay, jumping in their respective beds, laughing and screaming in joy.

It's the first time I've seen why that sort of behavior was not as much fun for my parents as it was for me.

But except for the Nap Incident(s), all of their fun was our fun from visiting the local aviation museum, to the park, to running in the back yard kicking the ball, to hiding in the big box. (A leftover from Dave's new Router!!! WOOHOO!!) Conor even started eating soup because it's Carter's favorite food.

It was really interesting to see how much these boys were cousins. The little things we've noticed Conor do but that others do not were the same little things that Carter does (e.g., high pitched screaming when excited). My brother's children are so much older than Conor so I don't remember what they did. But seeing those two together makes me pick out which part of Conor's personality come from Dave's side of the family. (Honestly, Dave doesn't let out too many high pitched screams or I would have already tracked down where that came from.)

Of course, one might also note the NASA emblem on Carter's overalls and wonder about Carter's traits that we WISH Conor had--like at 22 months distinguishing between purple and blue or pink and red. We're still working on helping Conor note the differences between white and yellow. At least everything isn't blue now, eh!? We're happy for the little things. (Should I mention how Carter started predicting the landmarks we would pass in reverse order of a road he has traversed only twice in his entire life!? Well, I just did.)

I have to say that on the last days of our family vacation, I realized that I really want Conor to grow up with his cousins and for us to spend more time with our siblings. Vacation times are precious, but so is.....((what I want to write is "but so is family" but that is so freakingly saccharine, that I can't)). I shall change that sentence then. Vacation times are precious, but so is having siblings who are old farts and new parents at the same time too. ((SEE!!! Not saccharine at all!))

OK, back to work. I want to revel in my newfound clarity after sleeping enough for the first time in weeks. Ahhhhhhhhhh........zzzzzzzzzzzz.