Far Far Away on the Colorado Highland Plains

I live so far away from my older and only sister and miss her terribly. Our history is one of not getting along well while growing up in the same house (and same room for over 10 years), fights, arguments, serious dislike; etc., etc. I was the little sister whom she thought wanted to copy all of her originality and was most certainly a nuisance and an annoying tag-along. Then she went away to college and somehow we started liking each other. And getting along. And we were interested in each other's lives. Soon I went to college and we enjoyed spending time together.

Then I got married to a dreamy guy and we moved back to DC. Soon Erin decided to leave Utah behind and moved back to DC too. She married her own dreamy guy, we bought our first homes within a few months of each other. We had our first babies within 6 weeks of each other and our second babies are 4 months apart. We are in the oh-so-same mode of life--working so hard to juggle two small children whilst trying to stay healthy and happy and emotionally stable, with some semblance of intellect and vocabulary remaining. We relate so well to each other. We understand completely the other's frustrations, joys, sorrows, anger, exhaustion, worries and without passing any judgement.

We talk on the phone in spurts. Sometimes multiple times a day, sometimes just once, definitely at least a few times a week. We don't always have a lot to say--"Just checking in..." We are there for each other as much as we can be with 1641 miles between us (I just mapquested it. That's door to door! I really thought it was at least 2000 miles. Hey!).

We are finally both at a place in life where we could really be there for each other. Drop kick our kids to the other's door and run the other way when need be; hang out on the patio and watch the kids play while we drink Coke and chat. But Doug and I chose to move away and while we, my little immediate family, are really happy in this choice, I'm sad to have lost the geographical closeness of this relationship and to have left her sweet family, too.

Truly, that is the hardest part for me. Bode and Fiona are just 6 weeks apart. For their first two years we managed to get them together pretty often. And they love each other. They play well together. Bode asks about Noni constantly. I saw this picture on her blog and showed it to him today...

I said, "Hey there's Noni!" He looked at it, smiled and laughed saying something about her looking silly. Then he pointed to Chloe and said, "Who's that, Mama?" Oh the pain. We talk about Noni's baby sister but he doesn't know her.

I grew up not really knowing my cousins. There were none my age. We were always the ones who lived far away. We saw them occasionally during Christmas or Thanksgiving. I really want my children to know and have a relationship with their cousins. These two in particular. I foster it as much as I can. I talk about them a lot. We send little packages and I try to get Bode to draw a picture to include. I show him their pictures. I tell him what she's up to today, since I used to have her weekly schedule memorized. But it pains me that we can't just drop in and have a playdate. I know that even when we lived in MD and they were (are) in VA it was often hard to get together. But we did it and just knowing we were sort of close by made a difference.

Bode informs me that Noni (and Grandpa Bill and Grandma Di for that matter) live FAR FAR AWAY but that if we just "cut across the grass" (meaning walk across the golf course behind our house) their house is "right there!" I guess just those few yards is far far away to a 3-year old! And oh how I wish he were right!

I am excited for our annual beach trip in September. My family (me and the boys including Doug) go with her family. We will spend a week together in the same beach house and get our fill of each other and all of our children (and one chocolate lab). I've always enjoyed this time at the beach, but I think it will be more precious and important to me now that we only see each other a couple times a year.