Family, and Being A Good Rolemodel!

My aunt, uncle, three cousins, and their dog, are visiting from Edmonton, for a week.  I am... very tired.  Work was tiring, yeah, yeah, and you've heard it before.  But these girls...

Jordana is fourteen, Aislinn is ten, and Mckenna is six.  I love Mckenna.  I love all of them, I love my family, but that's all the liking, resigned love.  But I love Mckenna like a best friend.  Although, somehow, I ended up as a legendary Favorite Cousin, which I have to live up to now, and spend all my time with them, arbitrating, taking care, entertaining, teaching.  Tonight I gave them clothes that I didn't wear anymore, and let them pick which pieces they liked.  I ate dinner with them, cut Mckenna's meat for her, chatted with Jordana, who does her best to pretend she doesn't like me, which I find funny.  I don't let on, though.  She has too much eldest sister teenage dignity for stuff like enthusiasm, except when she slips and forgets.  Aislinn is the next, tiny and delicate, picky and elegant.  She's fun to spoil.  Mckenna, though, is scrappy, and cuddly.  She's smart for six, nobody's fool, and there isn't a spiteful bone in her.  She taught me about six different clapping games with their own patterns and rhymes, including some clever made-ups.  We played them over and over after dinner. 

Tic tac toe
Gimme an ex
Gimme an oh
Three. In. A. Row.
(someone) got shot by a
U F O!
One two three!  And frantic rock paper scissoring ensues.

Then I played hairdresser with various sparkly clips, which made the younger two happy.  Jordana was somewhere else, hanging out with Keegan, so we had a gossip about her and her boyfriend(?) who she kissed.  And about the ill effects of kissing boys, known as "Boy Germs."  We all agreed that these germs are definitely gross and probably bad for you, and that girls should only give kisses to people in their family, because they must all have the same germs anyway.

I'm also on the "don't let them drown each other in the hot tub" duty, so we had our second swimsuit party.  I showed them the "southern lights" that the underwater light casts on the wall of the chimney, and we tried to find star patterns in the sky.  Mom and Auntie Laura joined us.  Somehow we had a conversation about religion.  They're all baptized, and--Catholic.  I'm almost certain.  My mom is Mckenna's godmother.  It started that we were talking about asking Keegan for something.

Aislinn:  But you can't trust boys!
Jessie:  That's right.  You can't trust boys.  And you don't kiss boys either.
Mckenna:  Uh-huh!  I'm not going to get married.  I'm going to get married, but then I'm going to get rid of my husband and keep my baby on my own.
Jessie:  ...but make sure you take his money first.
Mckenna:  Yeah.  Because he has to be rich.  And handsome, and strong, and be very nice to me.
Aislinn:  I'm going to break up with him but keep his money to spend on food, and save my money for my kids.  Then I'm going to get on a plane and travel with my kids all the way around the world.

Mom:  Laura!  Don't you take these kids to church?  I thought Catholics believed in the sanctity of marriage.

So we talked about our family's various religious tendencies (or lack thereof). 

Jessie:  I was never baptized.  What does that mean, do you know?  What happens when you aren't baptized?
Aislinn and Mckenna (together):  You die!

There's a short pause.

Aislinn:  But you wouldn't die, Jessie.  You're our favorite cousin.
Mckenna:  I thought you said... Gabriella was our favorite cousin?
Aislinn (quickly!):  Gabriella's not--she's not our cousin.  She's just a friend.  She's just a very good friend!

We got out, dried off, and wandered around in our swimsuits.  I made them smoothies, and we watched Pirates of the Caribbean (after a straw hunting episode which led me to rescue Mckenna from the Scary Dark of their camper trailer, and much speculation on the nature of the hypothetical rattlesnake under my mom's car).  The movie started.

But I think the summit of the night was when we got to the first Keira Knightley scene, when she wakes up.

Mckenna: She's pretty!
Aislinn:  ...she looks like Jessie!
Mckenna:  Yeah!  I bet they stole your face, Jessie, and put it on her.
 
And in the background, my brother is making suspicious snorting noises.  They're so funny.  And I love listening to their commentary on the movie.  They know Jack Sparrow doesn't die.  Although they do think Norrington tries to arrest Will and Elizabeth in the second one, which makes me sad.  But who am I to try and correct them?  Watching movies as a child is a strange experience of making connections which aren't right, but make sense.  Perfect sense, usually.  And it was always singularly peculiar to go back and watch a childhood film (such as, par example, "All Dogs Go to Heaven") and understand it from a grown-up brain. 

It's been a very long day.