For the last 9 years, our kids have been the only kids on either side of the family. It’s a weird thing for me, since I always had tons and tons of cousins of every age to run around with. I think about all the time I spent with my cousins when I was a kid, whether it was staying up late to play hide and seek at the family reunions, spending the night at their houses to watch movies and play videogames, making up games like “I’m Going Away on Monday, I Won’t Be Back ‘Till Sunday” or “Killer”, spending summers with them and going to the County Fair, or even just making leaf houses in Grandma’s front yard, it just feels like this big range of experiences that my kids are missing out on. I guess that’s just what happens when you’re the oldest in the family and you marry the oldest in her family.

Anyway, all of that has changed recently, with the sudden baby explosion!

All of the kids are excited to have some legit cousins, though I think it’s going to be especially fun for Alex, since they are all roughly the same age. Although not apparently the same size…turns out 8 months is a lot of difference at that age!

Of course, just in case he can’t maintain his natural size advantage, he has been practicing beating up on them anyway.