Losing our playmates! :(

This is Natalie and Max at the zoo yesterday. We will definitely miss Max, although Natalie might feel more safe without his flying arms around. (He gets so excited to see her that he usually smacks her on the top of the head!)

I thought this picture of Nicole was really cute so I wanted to share it. She's such a poser!

Here is Jeremy and Nicole at the zoo play ground.

When we moved here just over a year ago one of the big attractions was the fact that Isabella would be near to her cousins. We thought it would give her a good opportunity to make strong friendships within the family and have "built in" playmates. Jeri's oldest kids are ages 5 and 7 so they are considerably older than Isabella but Isabella and Nicole LOVE to play together. (maybe Bella more than Nicole) Infact, Isabella considers Nicole her best friend. EVERY morning Bella asks to call Nicole, to go to Nicole's house or if Nicole can go somewhere in our car with us. She loves playing with Nicole and idolizes everything she does.

Well, Brian (Jeri's husband) has taken a new position within his company which necessitates a move for them. As soon as they can sell their home they'll be moving back to Texas. But not to the Dallas area this time - to Houston.

This makes me sad for many reasons. I think the number one reason is for Isabella. Yes, I will miss my sister but I knew and understood before we moved here that we wouldn't always live near my sister and I know from past experience that we can continue a strong relationship over the phone, email and chat (if I can get Jeri to chat). I will miss hanging out over at her house, having someone to shop with, to trade off grocery shopping days, and to go to parks and other kid friendly places with. But Isabella doesn't understand moving yet. She doesn't understand that one day Nicole will be there and we can be at her house in 2 minutes and the next day it won't be that way. It will be sad when Isabella wants to go to Nicole's house and I have to tell her that we can't. But we'll have to do other things. Letters, pictures, phone calls, emails, packages. I want to try to be sure to continue that relationship that they have created. At least as much as we can. And who knows, maybe after law school we might just be joining them in Houston.

Of course Isabella has 10 other cousins that I'd like her to be close to. They are in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Utah and Texas. If we could be close to all of them she would have a different play date every day! But, I shouldn't fail to mention that we are still within 5 minutes of Grandma - so it isn't a total loss!

Part of me is hoping that it takes a while to sell their house so that they're still here, but the rational part of me is praying that they can sell the house soon and move so they can start school in Houston instead of having to move mid-school year. Now, maybe I can convince her to start a blog to share pictures of the kids since we won't be seeing them all the time! Have a great week!

~jen