Cousins, New and Old

There is something happening in my family. . .it started with little Dylan 5 years ago. . .then his brother Blake came along (on May 4th! The same birthday as the newly 50 aunt Kris!). . .but they were just brothers. . .now there are two new babies! I have previously menioned little Cayson, born in January. A few weeks ago my brother and sister-in-law, Josh and Kelsey, had a baby as well! His name is Jack. You can read more about Jack in the blog "Our Life" that I have a link to on the right side of this blog! I haven't seen him yet but here is a picture of him right after he was born.

Here is a photo of Cayson! He's smiling like a big boy already! Time flies!

So anyway, this means something is brewing for these four little boys and whoever comes in the future. . .they are cousins!

Here is a photo of the two babies. . .There are photos like this in so many families. . .the little cousin "buddies". . .there was Justin and Ryan, me and Greg, Katie and Andrea. . .and way back in the past there was Cindy and Mitch, Kris and Jill, Tim and both Davids (one on each side!), Gale and John . . .I'm sure there are more. The older baby always looks huge (Cough. . .Andrea!). And now there is Cayson and Jack. Hopefully when we have children someone else will have one at the same time (chances are it could happen!). I feel bad for the first girl to join this crew! Hopefully she is mine (I hope to have a daughter in the future!) They have a fun road ahead of them filled with weekend sleepovers, kids table antics and secret kid meetings out of the earshot of parents.

Justin came on the younger end of his group of cousins, and I came at the beginning. I was like the "Blake" of the family. Only Kara, born in 1980, is older. I recall the birth of many of my younger cousins. I clearly remember the birth of Courtney when I was just starting 2nd grade. She was born in September of 1990 during a time of turmoil in my family. My dad had just left us to return over seas during the early days of the Gulf War (for work as a petroleum engineer, not for military service). As of August, I was supposed to start second grade and Andrea was supposed to start Kindergarten at Sanaa Intertaional School in Yemen. Instead, an emergency change of plans had us starting school in Hatton, my 3rd school in 1 year, after a summer vacation "home" had turned into a permanent situation for my mom and siblings and myself. We were living at the farm, which was still occupied by my grandparents, temporarily until we could move into our rental house in town.

There was excitement as well, because we knew my aunt Karen was going to have a baby at any time. I was staying in the room with the crib, the room that all happy grandparents have in their house. I woke up in the middle of the night and noticed that the room was completely dark and there was a blanket over the window. I knew what that meant. . .little Kirsten, my 2 year old cousin, was there! She had been dropped off in the middle of the night because Karen had to go to the hospital! The arrival of the baby was imminent! I opened the door to let some light in and looked at her in the crib. Suprisingly, her huge blue eyes were wide open! She calmly said, "Where's my mom?" I said "I think she's at the hospital having a baby! We can see her tomorrow." Then we went back to sleep. It almost was like a dream but she was still there in the morning! I loved all of those little kids. . .

Justin and I both have a moderate number of cousins. . .I have 6 on my dad's side and 5 on my mom's and he has 6 on each side. This is more than some people have but far less than others have! I think my mom has around 65 cousins ranging in age from almost 60 to late 20's. Some of her aunts and uncles were in elementary school when she was born. My dad had quite a few as well and he had a situation that was common then but is pretty uncommon now. . .he and his brother and sister went to elementary and high school with and lived within miles of 18 of their cousins! Most of them were born in the 1950's in quick succession at the height of the baby boom and families like theirs are the reason that stately small town school buildings all over America have 1960's-era additions and gymnasiums jutting out in all directions to accomodate the kids born in those years. There were the two oldest girls, the dignified sisters Liz and Meredith, and their four younger animalistic wrestler brothers Mark, John, Peter and David. There were the five hilarious and smart "Bjerke girls", Julie, Beth, Rebecca, Mary and Carol. There was studious Jay and Kathy, and of course Gale and "Timmy", the two biggest with the lowest voices who are towering over the others in the back of every photo and Karen, their exhasperated little sister.

This whole crew went to school together, played sports together, went to confirmation class together and saw each other on weekends. At the wedding last weekend Tim and Gale made a brief mention of when they sang in choir as a freshman and senior and the two of them sang too low for the bass part in the songs. I could instantly imagine the setting because I had choir in the same room! It was on the third floor and the room was always hot. It had bad acoustics and a creaky wood floor. There were rickety risers and when the hours changed the room (and the whole school!) rumbled with the sound of hundreds of chairs moving at once and hundreds of feet stampeding across the wood floors and on the stairs. I recall choir being a class period where control was hard to keep. The students were crowded onto the risers and the teacher was constantly admonishing everyone to "quit horsing around" and "keep your hands to yourself!" I can see the teacher back in 1972 wondering what to do with the two prematurely low-voiced bass singing teenagers who, I'm sure, looked like they would rather be at football practice than singing four part SATB choir compositions as the rest of the room giggled and "horsed around". That is exactly what choir was like at HHS. Anyone reading this who went there is probably back in the room right now because it has always been the same. I used to play piano for the choir for some songs and one day I burst into a fit of laughter at the piano because a freshman boy in the tenor section sneezed and a glob of snot was hanging from his nose. Sometimes the chair at the end of the riser would fall off due to some sort of "horseplay" somewhere down the row and cause a huge commotion. That is the kind of thing that happened all the time. Music teachers really like a challenge.

What I was getting to was. . .it must have been fun to see your cousins without elaborate plans and holiday formalities! What is even crazier is that each "family" had cousins on their "other side" also living in the same town and attending the same school! The baby boom. . .what a crazy time. . .

OK, sorry, this is out of control. No one reads a blog planning to spend 1/2 hour and get a history lesson on the baby boom. I'll wrap this up NOW!