Cousin Time

Miss B and Cousin H have an incredibly close bond.  He can get the big guffawing laughs out of her by the simplest antics.  When she was a baby he seemed to understand exactly what she was saying and what she wanted.  It was like he still spoke the language of babies, himself being still quite young.

With her dad away this week Miss B has been a bit out of sorts, that and the whole realization of death I'm sure.  As I look back on candid photos of she and a little girlfriend who came over to play poor Miss B looks quite distracted and like she's got the weight of the world on her shoulders.  It pains me.  We've been taking it slow, snuggling a lot and spending much of our time by the sea.  The best of which was with Cousin H and Auntie yesterday.

It is so rare that there is a day that all four of us are together and one of us doesn't have some responsibility or obligation to rush back to at some point.  We were completely free agents.  The weather was, as the weather people say "the pick of the week."  Absolutely gorgeous and we headed to the beach.  Now in Maine when we say beach, there might not be a grain of sand at the spot we have in mind.  Mudflats, rocky crags, possibly a low bridge, basically anywhere you could potentially get wet (with salt water in our case) could be referred to as a beach.

This particular "beach" was actually a enormous tidal pool in New Harbor and it was amazing.  H had been there for an environmental camp fieldtrip earlier this summer and he spent the ride there telling me things I wouldn't see: hermit crabs, fish, etc.

Then when we got there he proceeded to find and in some instances catch, for a moment, everything he had insisted wouldn't be there.

He is so good at finding crabs, no small feat as they blend in so well.  Hearing him singing to clams to get them to relax and open their shells, just so he could take a little peak inside before he released them, well that is pretty special. 

The children with other families were smitten with him.  Our crab whisperer, our own dear Dickon.

H sporting empty quahog shells on his forehead.
We said he looked like a young bull calf just growing horns.

Lazy day at the seaside with a cousin and sister, followed by ice cream at a childhood favorite, Roundtop in Damariscotta.  A perfect day, and just what we needed.

Did you have a favorite cousin as a child?