Cousins

I was reading a post on my little brother's blog the other day, was in his photos looking at wedding pictures, started snooping and came across this picture. I love it. This is a picture of me and Bren, my sisters and two sisters in law, and many of her cousins that are her age. All but one were born within a year of her birth. Count 'em.


Yes, we Proffitts know how to procreate. Rachael has 4 cousins that are her age. She has always loved it. Kindyl kind of came in between rounds of babies but still has 2 cousins that were born only a few months before she was (unfortunately, both are boys. Poor little K) but she has always been able to play with the older girls or take care of the younger ones. Mitchell has 6 cousins his age, including 2 boys. (Boys are scarce in our family, so he really hit the jackpot)



All but two out of the 11 of us live here in Mesa, so our kids get to see each other often. They are really lucky. It is kind of like having built in friends. How lucky are they that every vacation they go on they have tons of friends to play with?

Of course, since so many of them are girls (and so many of us for that matter) there is bound to be some drama every now and then. We try to keep it to a minimum and have our little ways of avoiding it.



So this picture got me thinking about this next baby. It will be pretty lonely! My sister in law Margaret is pregnant and two months ahead of me, so it will have one little friend. But Clark and Margaret are moving to Tucson. And their baby is due in August and mine is due in October. I don't believe in putting your kids in school early, so this means they will probably be in separate grades. We have dealt with this before though, so it may be O.K. But what if it is a girl? (Marg is having another cute boy. Can you say jealous?) .)


I am number 6 in my family. My 5 older siblings are all done having children, so I have no hope for them. I don't think there is much hope for my 5 younger ones either. One is in a looong process of adoption, and two just aren't ready for another baby yet. What can you do?


SO what is the fate of this little baby # 5? Is it going to have only one little cousin to play with who happens to live hours away? At least they will be together for vacations, right? It may have cousins who are only around a year younger. That wouldn't be so bad.

What do you think? Did you grow up with cousins? (We didn't really) Will this baby be O.K without them? Or is it really just no big deal?