Not heat, nor rain, nor screaming toddlers could keep us from our appointed rounds today - to attend the Egan Family Reunion in Swansea, MA! Cousin Mary (O'Brien) Harding and her husband Chris put on an amazing party. We haven't had a reunion like this in over a decade, and it was amazing to see how the family has grown!
This branch of the Egan clan began with my grandparents, William and Mary (Sullivan) Egan. Grandpa and Grandma had 11 children, (adding quickly in my head here) 40 grandchildren and (busting out paper and pencil for this one) 45 great grandchildren!
The newest crop of babies was unbelievably precious! Emily, Greg, Leighton, Aiden, Colleen and James - adorable every single one! My goal was to comandeer at least one of them to snuggle, but alas, a small matter of a two year old having a really bad day put a crimp in those plans.
At the last reunion, I got to snuggle my cousin Christine's baby Joshua for hours. I now realize that the baby snuggling job is best left for the single ladies and new brides of the family, who haven't had their own crop of Egans yet, or for the aunts and grandmas whose children have grown independent. Those of us who have small Egans of our own spend so much time tending to them that there's no time left to snuggle anyone else! Or to have longer than a 30-second conversation with any of their family members. Or to sit and eat a meal. There is a season for everything though, and in another ten years I'm sure the dynamic will be completely different, and we'll probably wax nostalgic about these days.
That Joshua though - he was so sweet that I prayed God would give us one just like him! Ten years later, we are so blessed to have not one, but two boys, and our sweet girl in the middle. Joshua has grown into a (still totally adorable) 11 year old, and after speaking with Christine it's clear that our boys and the Davidson boys DO have a lot in common. Like tenacious, persistent personalities and independent spirits.
Some days those traits combine to be a force to be reckoned with, and today was our little one's day of reckoning.
It was kind of like trying to attend a summer soiree with a rabid piranha under your arm. At one point, I was taking a picture of my dad and his siblings and I had both of my feet wrapped in a death grip around his ankle, while he screamed mercilessly at the top of his lungs and flailed his body around on the ground trying to escape.
I did get the picture though!
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| This is pretty much what the little guy did all day. |
Never did find the dry clothes. I ended up wearing my bathing suit, soaking wet skirt, and an inside out cover-up held closed with a safety pin.
Ah, motherhood. It's exactly what I wished for, and I wouln't trade my little piranhas for anything in the world!
But ten years later, I have a whole new level of respect for all the moms and dads in the family and all the hard work of parenting they do! Because while the baby snugglers of the group (and I know this because I used to be the queen of the baby snugglers) get to hold the happy, squishy, cuddly babies in ignorant bliss and remark about how cute they are and how they want one just like them...
...it's the soaking wet, half dressed, worn out, never did finish that meatball parents who are going around wiping noses and bottoms and kissing boo boos and finding loveys and dry clothes and juice boxes and packing the car and stripping and pajama-ing the exhausted cherubs and piranhas and strapping them into their car seats and driving home in the dark to tuck them in and unpack the minivan and fall exhausted on their faces into bed, thanking God for all our blessings, before we pass out cold.
Only to be woken up three hours later by a tap on the forehead because someone needs 'company' in the bathroom.
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| Happiness. In all it's soggy, shrieking glory. |
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