Cousins

What a nice thing, cousins. It's like, more than a friend, less than a sibling. OK, that's so not deep. Anyway, I have six cousins total on both sides of my family. We saw the Oregon ones the most often, which, sadly, was about 3 times during childhood. Somehow, with the Korean connection that happens in college/young adulthood, we've become much closer. Also, we're all fairly close in age. Danny's the oldest at 30, and Maggie's the youngest at 24. Peter, on the other hand, has about 37 bajillion cousins, some of whom have children that are closer to us in age. All but 3 live in Korea. Of the 3, one is 47. So very different situations.

Maybe it's different for those who grew up around extended family, but, like I said, we rarely saw each other growing up. But I love seeing them because there's just no awkwardness and instant comfortable-ness. Comfortability? Whatever. And Ellie keeps saying Maggie Eemo is her favorite eemo and Uncle Pete is her favorite uncle (sorry, Paul, Danny, and Marsh).

As of late, we've seen our cousins pretty often. We've seen them 3 times in the past year, which is equivalent to the number of times we saw each other in the first 20 years of my life. It's great. I was so excited to take a picture at Pete's restaurant with him. Mostly because there is no picture in existence of just the two of us. Aw... cute.

So now Ellie and Matthew have a cousin. Ellie was really excited to meet Abby. We thank God for her everyday before bed, so there was definitely some hype surrounding the meeting. Did Abby like Ellie? Maybe not so much since she's so LOUD all the time, but Ellie did not care. Just as she does not care when Matthew is protesting her "affection". They are cousins, so Ellie instantly loved her. Like she says, Abby is her favorite cousin. I'm hoping that since they're so close in age, Matthew and Abby will grow up being fairly close. They'll definitely see each other more often than Danny and I saw our Oregon cousins, so that should help.

One thing about my cousins that has always been so striking to me is the fact that our families are SOOO different. Theirs is affectionate and emotional (much bawling took place during Marsh's reception by all named Cho), ours was rather dignified and prudish. The Chos are super close, even all living together in the same apartment, Maggie and Marsh even sharing a ROOM. Danny and I couldn't even fathom sharing a large house. And somehow, their dad and my mom are siblings. It's hard to imagine them living together, sharing a life together, at one point playing together.

Abby and my kids are pretty different, too. Abby is very serious, introverted, and calm. My kids are happy-go-lucky, silly, and active. Ellie is a social butterfly, always has been. Even in infancy, she loved being in groups of people, let anyone hold her, smiled at everybody. Matthew's a little more withdrawn. He gets flustered when it's too loud or he's passed around too many times, but he's mostly OK with it. Abby clearly takes after Danny, and I think Matthew takes after me. I like people, but I need my quiet time even more. Ellie, obviously, is just like Peter. Ham. Clown.

My parents are not close to any of their siblings, even less so with their cousins. It makes me happy that our generation has changed that. I hope our kids' generation will be even closer. Aw... cute.

Sorry for the smudginess and flashes. Turns out Ellie had been playing with the camera and smeared the lens with her fingers. Boo.