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.