Cousins

Since Rob is now gainfully employed at the National Aviary, Kellie so generously has been keeping Olive for us on Sundays, the day he and I both work. Yesterday when I went to pick her up I was eagerly awaiting her joyous response to my showing up at the door, having missed me all day. But what I got was so much better: the ever warm and impishly gleeful welcome from Jack and Gail, with two same-sized grinning gals, Iris and Olive, who had clearly enjoyed their day together. Olive was only mildly glad to see me, but was still happily distracted by her playmates. Having not seen Iris for several weeks since the Ryans were vacationing in the Midwest, I was astounded by her progress in the walking area. I knew it was right around the corner, but boy! She's on par now with Olive, it seems, and is leaps and bounds ahead of her verbally (though our gal has been getting more and more proficient with her mimicking. Having her older sister around this summer, I'm sure, has helped with that a lot). My heart swelled when my eyes met hers and I could read what a good time she'd been having. I feel so fortunate to be so close to my sister and her family now, after all those years of living nearly a thousand miles away. I love that Olive's getting to spend this time with her cousins, who are all such sweetlings I can hardly stand it. Plus, I could scarcely dream up a better caretaker than my wondermother of a sister. But I know the day will come when she won't want to come home with me, but I guess that will be okay, too, I suppose.