“Mom, it’s great that you love the baby so much, but you need to pay more attention to me”.  This was Rachel’s random comment when I was getting stuff ready for the baby this morning.

“Well, what should I do?”

“You can sit next to me and watch me play this game on the iPad”.  Ok, easy enough….

I think getting a new baby sister has been a pretty big adjustment for child number one.  Of course she was thrilled to get a baby sister.  Shoot, she practically named the kid all by herself!  But Rachel has had all of mine and Bryan’s attention and energy until now.  In the mornings I usually tell her to entertain Sarah.  Sometimes, I can’t help but laugh (and snap a

Rachel “entertaining” Sarah Amelia

quick picture).

It’s to imagine how different Rachel’s attitude might be if she had more siblings.  My dad had 10 sisters – yes 10!  He grew up right next to his “double first cousins” – two sisters married two brothers (and no, they weren’t related).  So, there were even more kids in the mix.  I have thought a lot about my dad’s relationship (and mine too) with all of his sister’s and cousins.  My dad’s cousin Mildred passed away a few days ago.  Mildred  really knew how to light up a room and somehow knew what was going on with everyone in the family, despite living about 3 hours away from her hometown.  All of my family have such great stories about their childhood – playing, fighting, singing – always all together.

Some of my cousins – Eva Ruth, David, and Mildred

It always felt like a special blessing listening to all of those stories, because my family members could tell the stories just like they happened yesterday.  One of my favorites was about my dad pretending to be a preacher and accidently dropping his cousin Shirley in the creek when he tried to baptize her.  I particularly remember how Mildred would just laugh and laugh and laugh whenever that story was told!  She was just so warm and down to earth.

I hope that my little family will have some sense of what life was like for all of her family back in Kentucky.  I hope that they will have happy times together and can recall the good ole days with their family.

The Kee Sisters 🙂