Since Chris’s cousin and his daughter have been here, it’s been all fun chaos and running around and laughter in our apartment. Sara and Kaia got along as soon as Sara came into Kaia’s crib once she woke up on Sunday morning, which was a gleeful surprise for my Pookster. The two days of this week when Sara came with me to pick up Pookster at school, Kaia shrieked with delight at seeing Sara come through the door. Pookster just loves having Sara doting on her and running around and playing with her. Sara likes to take care of Kaia, doing everything from fixing her hair and ensuring she is out of harm’s way. It’s been really sweet and cute to see.

Last night was their last night with us before heading back to London on an early morning flight today. That meant that when Kaia woke up this morning, she wasn’t able to be greeted by Sara to say “good morning.” Last night at bedtime, as she slowly drifted into her sleep, Kaia kept saying over and over, “Good night, Sara. Good night, Uncle Andy. See you tomorrow, Sara. See you tomorrow, Uncle Andy.” I can’t even count the number of times she said it, but it was at least a dozen times, over and over until she rolled onto her belly, stuck her butt up in the air as she usually does to get comfortable, and then fell asleep. As cute as it was, it also made me feel a bit sad because I knew that she would not actually see either of them “tomorrow.” By the time she would wake up, Sara and Andy would be getting ready to board their flight back to London. And though we will be seeing Andy in December for Christmas, we all know that Kaia and Sara would really like to see each other again. But we don’t know when that time will be.

That’s the hard thing about not having siblings or cousins close by: you don’t always know when you can have these fun, cute, sweet moments when they can enjoy time together and get to know each other. So these moments are even more precious.