Some of the best memories came from the interactions between Hannah and her exactly 1 year younger cousin. I got a good peek into what it would be like to have two girls. Adorable and terrifying at the same time. Below is my list of favorite moments:

- The female version of "Who's on First?"... Hannah asked S "Do you have My Little Pet Shop?" and S responsded, "No, I have my OWN My Little Pet Shop". Hannah asked, "Can I play with My Little Pet Shop" and S said, "Sure, where is it?" Confused Hannah said, "I don't know, where do you keep it?" and S also confused said, "I didn't put it anywhere, MY little Pet Shop is in my room. You can play with Your Little Pet Shop". You get the gist... this continued a little longer before both decided the discussion wasn't worth the confusion.

- Riding in the car S requested to hear the song, "Who Let the Dogs Out" and to hear the two of them singing it, buckled into their car seats but still getting down to the tunes in the backseat was priceless. Luckily the lyrics aren't too complicated. "Who let the Dogs out? Hoot Hoot! Who Let the Dogs out? Hoot! Hoot!"

- We arrived at a restaurant with maroon colored table cloths and napkins and the two girls immediately started in with each other on what color said napkins were. Hannah had her arms crossed, S had her hands on her hips and the jeering began. "PINK!" Hannah yelled pointedly. "LIGHT PURPLE!" S defiantly responded. "PINK!" "LIGHT PURPLE!" They continued for 10 minutes or so getting closer and closer to each others faces. A true catfight looked like it was going to break out. We thought they were joking until the tears started streaming. My stepping in and stating that actually it was maroon didn't help much since either since neither had really ever heard of maroon and my not siding with my daughter only made matters worse.

- Some friends of my sister-in-law's came over one night and brought their kids. Their daughter was 5 which Hannah jumped on immediately. Another companion and an excuse to gang up on the 3 year old. I overheard the three of them talking as they sat around a little table drawing (fast forward 12 years and i could imagine the same situation at Starbucks or the local wine bar, drinks in hand) and I heard Hannah say to cousin S, "There are times S when you won't know what we're talking about because you're only 3. But don't worry, as you get older, you'll understand more and more.". This would have sent Hannah in tears to my side but being the adaptable sweet girl S is, she just said, "ok" and continued her drawing.

- I also had some priceless moments with my nephews. My 7 year old nephew is famous for the comments that come out of his mouth (I heard he recently told his school bus driver, "You're going to get a ticket for driving too SLOW!") and my favorite of the weekend was when he asked me what the first day of the week is and I tentatively responded "Monday?" not knowing if he was one of those kids who asked trick questions and "Sunday" was the correct answer. Without any hesitation he said, "You are very smart. Wise like Yoda". Coming from a 7 year old boy, I took that as one of the highest compliments a person could get and walked away quite proud.

I'm still working on my 10 year old nephew to be my little buddy. I hoped that impressing him with my baseball skills would do the trick and show him Aunt Becca is cool and maybe I did get one step closer but I think until I can memorize every baseball stat, decide my favorite football team is the Steelers and know every line from Star Wars, I have a ways to go.

I'm happy to be home. I didn't have to worry about Luke waking anyone in the night, don't have to feel bad that Luke throws all his food on the floor, and that damn bag of candy corns is out of sight but my house is eerily quiet, my kids are missing their playmates and I miss someone else making my coffee every morning (and of course the company).