Time After Time

I went home this past weekend, to see family, and ended up spending the majority of my time with my cousins and their children, all of whom are under 9. I'm not normally a kid person, but apparently something's changed, because although I'm still not a big fan, the kids are flocking to me in droves. I had a five week old baby sleep on my chest, got sticky kisses from the 1 year old, and colored a lot with my cousin's three year old, who followed me around all day and enjoyed sitting on my lap while I colored her Disney Princesses.

At one point, she and I were inside talking to my grandmother, her on my lap, and I found myself gathering her hair up into a little ponytail, and turning that ponytail into a French twist, only to let it fall over and over. She turned around to ask me what I was doing, and I told her I was playing with her hair, just like her mommy used to do to me when I was little.

One of my favorite memories of that particular cousin is of sitting on the floor in my aunt's house while she twisted my hair up over and over again, always letting it fall back down with a thoughtful noise. To do the same thing to her daughter, and know that her daughter will probably someday do the same to her cousins, and their children--man, do I ever love my family.