Claire and Vera

I've mentioned in a previous post that I always imagined that we would raise our family in our rural hometown. But we love the little town we live in. A big part of why it works for us is that we are fortunate enough to have an important piece of our family live less than a half mile away from us. We get to see our family at least once a week but there is something special about having part of your family be in your day to day lives. It's no coincidence that our local family, Kyle's brother, his wife, and our niece, are some of Claire's favorite people in the whole wide world. I love that phrase. Whole wide world. Very Disney.
Claire has pretty much idolized her cousin Vera since she was old enough to notice her. I can't blame her, Vera's pretty cool. The best part is that they've recently figured out that they make a pretty good pair.
Yesterday Vera's very pregnant mom brought her over so she could make a trip to the grocery store. Something about being 9 months pregnant, carrying a 2 year old who doesn't believe in riding in carts (it's a philosophical disagreement), and grocery shopping doesn't mesh well. Claire woke up from a nap just as Vera was being dropped off and as soon as I said the word "Vera" she snapped out of her post nap fog and was ready to rock, toddler style.

First, they shared a snack. Claire accidently spilled hers and Scout (who holds a constant snack vigil) swooped in to "clean it up" and Vera ran over to it and said "Scouty go on!". She protects her cousin...and her snacks. 

 

Then they had a yell-off. This is one of their favorite activities. Someone (Lauren!) taught the girls that yelling at the top of your lungs is super fun, so the whenever these two get together, one of them remembers that they are exceptional yellers and need to share their talents with the rest of the world. This shared passion for yelling made our trip to Costco very interesting last weekend. Its a good thing it's such a big store. 

Then they went for a drive. 

 Then they hug/wrestled. I have no idea where this came from but whenever they hug, they pull each other over. I tried my best to teach them to stand up and hug without toppling over but I had no success. Apparently this is part of the fun. 

No play date would be complete without a dance break. As you can tell, these girls have some serious moves. 

After all of that dancing, they decided a pretend nap was in order.

Love these girls. Did I mention that the baby on the way is a boy? Good luck with these two baby Jack. I can already picture all of the great ideas they'll have for him.