Me 'n My Lil' Buddies: Aunt Bailey Time!

For the last 14 months, I've been living 3000 miles away from my family - and that means I am missing out on a LOT of time with my nephew Cohen (4) and my niece Tierney (2).

And I don't just mean "missing" it as in "I'm not there for it." I mean I'm MISSING it. Like, real bad.

I'm home in Massachusetts now, for a little 11-day stint of a visit. Finally, I'm able to squeeze my lil' buddies and hear their voices and have conversations with them in person! I'm loving it :)

They're both growing up so fast - as small children often do.

Cohen is now completely able to hold any type of conversation with me and his critical thinking skills are really great. He asks lots of interesting questions and you can almost see his mind working while he's chatting with you. His dad Doug (my brother-in-law) is a mechanical genius when it comes to cars, trucks, heavy machinery, building houses, electronics, and just about any other "handy" hobby that a guy can have, and Cohen has been soaking it ALL in as well. That means that my 4-year-old nephew knows more about ball bearings, 18-wheeler trucks, and ratchets than you do. It's awesome.

Tierney has changed a TON since I last saw her (in person) in September of 2012. There's a huge difference between a 27-month-old child and a 20-month-old child, mentally and physically! I love hearing all the words she says now in her tiny, sweet little voice... and I'm even getting pretty good at figuring out what she means to say, when she's not being super articulate. ;)  She is almost always smiling - a huge, room-lighter-upper type of smile - and is generally just a huge joy to be around.

While living in Oregon and then Canada, I've been surviving off of lots of pictures and videos of the kids, sent to me from my family. It's been a great way of preventing me from missing absolutely EVERYTHING that's going on with them as they grow. Nothing compares to seeing them in zee flesh though. I love loving them so much :)

Here's a little bit of what we've been up to together since I arrived in the state:

.  tierney girl pulling her sled  .

.  swinging and smiling in clifford  .

.  cohen swinging away  .

.  heading out for a walk in the woods  .

.  big bro, lil sis  . 

.  precious mother-son moment with mal and cohen .

.  tierney having a ball with her aunt markie  .

.  coconut having some quiet time  .

.  love this picture!  .
.  me, cohen, mallory, tierney, doug (in front), robbie and markie  .

Thanks for reading! I'll take any excuse to make people look at pictures of these kids ;)