The Missing Cousin

After rereading my last blog, I realized that I had left out a small but very important and very cute part of my trip to Oregon, KULIA! Yes, we visited TWO cousins on our trip up North, but sadly Kulia did not make it into my first post. It's not that we didn't enjoy our time with Kulia, it's just that Sammy was not so hot on his younger cousin.

Kulia, having just turned one year old, was a typical toddler and Sammy was not too thrilled with her. She wanted to be a part of everything Leina and Sammy were doing, but of course in the eyes of Sammy she was just a nuisance. Poor Kulia just had to sit too close to Sammy during book reading to elicit complaints and when Auntie Chrissie asked, 'Isn't Kulia sooo sweet?', Sammy got a sour look on his face and stated, 'Not so sweet!' At one point he even called her a 'Poo-Poo Girl'.

The funny thing is, is Kulia is so much like Sammy. Sammy was just like Kulia at one year old, driving Daniel nuts, and still does sometimes, well a lot of the time actually. And Kulia wasn't even trying to be a bother, while Sammy intentionally antagonizes Daniel.

Although Kulia was not a big hit with Sammy, the adults could not get enough of her. Her sweet innocence, big slobbery kisses and chubba-chubba legs were enough to win any adult over. Although Kulia did let me hold and kiss her, her favorite by far was Papa. She would just sit on his lap contentedly, whine for him to pick him up and give him big hugs and kisses.

I know Sammy will enjoy playing with Kulia as she gets older, and I think that he does like her deep down inside. And I think she is so sweet, even if my youngest doesn't think so.

Oregon Adventure

Sammy and I just got back from our annual trip to Oregon for Leina's birthday. Once again Sammy proved himself a great traveler. He was perfect waiting in lines, going through security, waiting for the plane and sitting on the airplane. This time I didn't even bring a stroller, so Sammy had to walk/stand the whole time. Besides a 45 minute delay on the way out, the flight couldn't have gone better.

The real fun began when we arrived at my sister's house. Leina was so excited to see Sammy and play with him and boy did they have fun together. Besides a few minor squabbles they were best buddies. Although we were only there for three full days we crammed in a lot of fun, going to the park and playing in the water, Leina's birthday party, OMSI (Oregon museum of Science and Industry), slip-n-slide and dinners outside on the deck. We made so many great memories in such a short amount of time. One of my favorite memories would have to be listening to Leina and Sammy talking to each other at night. They would talk and sing to each other for an hour or an hour and a half before dozing off to sleep. One morning I was listening in on their conversation and it went something like this:

Leina: Sammy, those are my books!

Sammy: (silence, since he is in reaching distance to some books I am assuming he has grabbed some books)

Leina: Those are my books, Sammy!!

Sammy: (still silent and probably trying to ignore her)

Leina: Sammmmmy, those are MYYYYYY BOOKS!!!!

Sammy: (still not a peep)

Leina: Sammy? Can I have a book?

And another night after Chrissie went in to tell them to stop talking and sleep:

Leina: Sammy, no more talking! It's time to sleep!

Sammy: (quiet)

Leina: Sammy? Are you asleep?

We finally decided to sleep them in separate rooms for naps our of fear that they would just talk the entire time.

The best memory by far, which basically wrapped all the fun we had together into one statement, was when Leina, after blowing out her birthday candles and being asked what she wished for, replied, without prompting or hesitating, 'I wish Sammy could stay here forever!'