SouPies!A few years ago i had a phone conversation with one of my sister in laws (MHC) that changed my life. There was so many things that it would take all day, but one of her words of wisdom was the importance of aunts and uncles in our children's lives. She talked about how important it is to have relationships with your brothers and sisters so that you children will have aunts and uncles who they will go to when they don't want to talk to their parents. it gives them one more adult in their life that they feel they can turn to, rely on and one that loves them.
I was so greatful for her advice. I had shared with her how hard it is to not live around one member of our family. I kind of always feel like our kids are on the outside looking in. (of course i know this is a mass insecurity and if anyone in my family reads this they are going to say i am crazy, but how would i know if anyone from my family reads this blog since no one says anything about it, ok enough of that!)
So i decided that day to do things that would teach my kids about our brothers and sisters.
To this Day annie kate loves to hear the story of Jeff's brother Scott and how he ripped out 6 teeth in one day. in fact everytime she loses a tooth we tell that story that night.
On of the other things I did was to start calling the girls blankets their Soup. (even though our own version has become Soupies) My sister in law (lizzi) had a blanket when she was a little girl and she used to call it her soup. So to teach my girls about their Aunt Lizzi we adopted that name. What is even funnier is that everyone in our family has their own soup, even Jeff and I and with our names monogrammed on them. So i had to take a photo. see above
we all love our blankets and each sleep with them at night.
I am forever greatful to the advice given to me.
What do you do in your life to be apart of your siblings kids lives?
9 comments:
Adding on a little more about Lizzy's soup -- Kristi was making a family quilt for me (her mother-in-law) and each member of the family contributed a piece of material for the quilt. Because Lizzy's "soup" was so far gone, she donated that for her quilt square. Kristi had to do a lot of work to get a 12" square of that "soup" to manage a square in my quilt. The whole quilt is so very precious to me, and Lizzy's square was a big sacrifice on her part. I still have the scraps of her blanket, but I don't know yet how I will give them back to her. Blankies or soups (soupies) are always a precious part of a child's life.
The big question is, does Jeff call his blanket his soupie???
Yes he does call it his soupie. we are all soupie addicts in this house.
Kristi, I'm glad you're back to being readable (this is "Book Club Amy"). I enjoyed it before it got messed up, but never commented. I was a lurker, which is fine for me but not very satisfying for the author.
Anyway, I'm lucky enough to live a few blocks away from my sister so I see her kids nearly every day. Altough it's sometimes a little much, I am so grateful that I know her kids so well, that they are almost as comfortable with me as they are with their Mom, and that my daughter gets to play with her cousins so much. As much as I agree that aunts and uncles are important, I also have to add that cousins are important as well. The cousin relationship is great because there isn't all of the sibling rivalry, just a really close friendship that comes from being related.
oh so true. i never had strong relationsips with my cousins, mostly due to distance i hope to not repeat that with my kids. sometimes it is just so hard! and now that we are moving to the other side of egypt!
I am so glad that I can get on to your blog again! We don't have any kids, have never been able too, but I'm bound and determined to be the favorite Aunt. I love that my nieces and nephew know the sound of my voice even at the young age of 2 and 3. We have a good time. They have all come out to visit me and I go and see them alot. I go out for evey baptism and they know how loved and accepted they are. What a blessing in my life.
I guess I missed the boat on soupies or blankies while my kids were growing up. My little brother left his homemade quilt in Yellowstone Park when he about 4. He took it everywhere, and cried for days afterward. It made the trip kind of hard on all of us. I guess I remembered that when I had babies because they were attached to blankets. I had 2 thumb suckers too, and they liked any satiny thing including nightgowns in the dept. stores and homemade red chiles I hung on the Christmas tree. But all they took to bed with them was their thumbs. They both quit at age 5. Whew!
Both of our kids have favorite blankets that they sleep with (and so do I), but I don't know if they have "soupie" status or not.
As for developing relationships with my siblings' kids, that's where our weekly game nights come in. Adam and Amy live in Salt Lake so we don't see them during the week except for when they come to our house to play games on Friday nights. This has been a great way to become friends with them, and for our kids to become best-friend type cousins. Whitney and Bella are especially close and love to play together. Whitney asks me every day of the week if it's the day the Bella comes, so Landon and I are always trying to explain the days of the week to her. I think she tunes us out because she is only interested in the part where Bella comes over.
Ok so when your blog was not working I was like...wow what do I do with my time??? Hahaaa.
So I loved this topic because I think that family is so important. My mom grew up being very close to her grandma and many cousins. I grew up the opposite. I had great grandparents but they were not very involved in our lives and same with cousins. I think it is important to make the effort as an Aunt/Uncle and keep your relationships as siblings the best you can. Luke talks about the the cousins that he is around. We talk about his other cousins but I don't think he will understand until he meets them. He loves his cousin Devon who he sees quite often and they are the best of friends!!! It is so cute!!! He is also very into his grandparents and I hope that it will always stay that way.
Yes Kristi... I read your blogs!!!
Rachel
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