Cousins

A few weeks before we found out we were pregnant, my brother called with the news that he and my sister-in-law, Ashlee, were expecting and due in July 2010. We were super excited - it was the first grandchild/niece or nephew on my side of the family.

Then we found out I was pregnant and joked about the race to have the first grandkid, as we were due about three weeks apart.

They found out they were having a girl. We found out we were having a girl.

But that's kind of where the similarities stop.

I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy in Florida. Ashlee had a rough pregnancy, with some pretty serious contractions starting a little more than halfway through her pregnancy in Colorado. She was on bedrest for the duration.

Ashlee ended up going in to full-blown labor a few weeks before her due date, so my niece, Abby, is actually one month older than Elle to the day. I always thought it was pretty cool that they are so close in age and both born on the last day of the month.

Since they're in Colorado, the majority of all of our families (Tim's, Ashlee's, mine and my brother's) are in Ohio and we're in Florida, I wasn't sure when any of us would get to meet.

Luck was on our side, though, and Ashlee and Abby were going to be in Ohio for a wedding during the week that I was going to be in Ohio with Elle at the end of my maternity leave. My grandma got to meet both of her great-granddaughters on that trip.

Abby was about three months old here.
Elle was about two months old.

In March, the family was brought together again, this time in Pennsylvania and Ohio, for Grandma's funeral.

Playing with a toy cat.

Abby was about nine months old - Elle, about eight.

My brother and I with our pajama-clad offspring.
I think we were discussing having them sumo wrestle.
I was pretty sure Elle could take Abby.

Abby mastered walking as Elle mastered crawling.
We just tried to keep Abby from walking all over the crawling Elle.

We had been planning a trip to Colorado for my 30th birthday, so the cousins met yet again.

Bath time fun! We got a ton of great photos.

Abby turned 10 months old while we were there.
Elle turned nine months old.
I turned 360 months old.

Pool table babies!

And in June, Ashlee's family reunion was held about 90 minutes south of where Tim and I live. We met up for breakfast one morning while they were in Florida, on the day after Abby's first birthday.

Abby: 1 year, 1 day old.
Elle: 11 months, 1 day old.

Ashlee and I with the littles.

I know the girls won't be able to see each other this much every year (although I hope some day they're able to see each other much more!), but it was really cool to see my brother and his family so much and have the girls interact at different stages of their first years. Elle loves to look at photos of Abby and say "Baby! Baby!" :)