Cousin Love

On Friday, we headed up to my sister's house to help her with a renovation project.

Like a good, traditional family, the men ended up doing all the work while we women sat in the living room with the children and ate leftover pie.  (We may have also eaten some fried Twixt bars and some fried Oreos as well, but shhhh, I'm not going to mention that here.)    

mmmm, Oreos

The best part was that Madeline got to play with her cousin Katie Belle for the afternoon.  Madeline has five cousins, but there's a significant age gap between my eldest nephew, who is 23, and Madeline who is the youngest in the family.  Katie Belle is not only the only other girl cousin, but she's also only two years older than Maddie, so hopefully they will get to be good buddies as they get older.  

Madeline with Auntie Hollie and cousin Owen

Katie Belle was so cute when we got there.  She climbed up on a stool so she could say hi to Madeline, and she lead her to the toys right away.

But have you ever seen a one-year old and a three-year old, neither of whom have siblings their own age, play together?  It's pretty funny.

First, playing fair with a one-year old is pretty impossible.  Trust me, I know...

You'd think that Maddie Bear would know how to share with other kids from her time in daycare.  She does not.  She would rather hog the toys for herself, and she would prefer that nobody get in her way while she's doing it.  If someone does get in her way, she whines loudly at them.  Really loudly.  More like a shriek, actually.  Katie wanted to play with Madeline, but I think Maddie's one-year-old brain only saw someone in the way of her desire to sneakily eat chalk behind her Mumma's back.  Therefore, poor Katie Belle got shrieked at a lot.

Coloring with Katie Belle.

Katie Belle is at an age where she's starting to understand the rules of sharing and playing nice, but is not always willing to do so without knowing why she has to first.  She spent a great part of the afternoon trying to comprehend why it was okay for Madeline to steal her toys when it was not okay for Katie to steal Madeline's.  And then we had to take her chalk away because Madeline kept trying to eat it.  And when Katie Belle tried to hug Madeline, Maddie pushed her away.  This was too much injustice for a three-year old who has obviously been taught not to push to comprehend.  

Madeline hoarding all the crayons so that she may eat them latter while nobody is looking.

Still, I think they both had a good time together.  I applaud Katie Belle's efforts at trying to share and play nice with a one-year old.  It is not an easy task for a three-year old to master, but she did really well.  

Hopefully be next year, Madeline will make a better playmate.  Or maybe her shrieks will just grow louder??  Hmmm...

Grammy with her granddaughters