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Cousin Competition

On Sunday, Eleanor and Amanda started talking about their cousin Anders. They both wanted to be his cousin, but it was important that the other one not be his cousin. "I'm Anders' cousin!" "No, I'm Anders' cousin!"

I tried really hard to explain that they could both be his cousin (and in fact, if one was his cousin, so was the other one). Eleanor thought she was more his cousin since he was born just after her (actually he was born almost precisely in between Eleanor and Amanda). I suggested that Amanda had been his cousin for her whole life, so maybe she was more his cousin. Or that maybe Luke was more his cousin because he was a boy.

Eleanor and Amanda remained stubbornly unconvinced. Unable to cut the Gordian knot, I passed the buck. In a few days, Anders will get a package containing pictures from Eleanor, Amanda and Luke. He then gets to pick who is his cousin. I'm hoping my sister will be able to come up with something good to tell them which will get them to stop arguing about this! (She said that if you asked him who his cousin was, he would probably pass by Eleanor and Amanda for his older boy cousin on the other side of the family. Maybe this would end the argument...)

Update: On Tuesday at dinner, Eleanor said "I wonder who is more Luke's sister." Perhaps this is a battle we cannot win.
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Anonymous said…
I asked Anders and he looked at my confused and said, "Um, they both are my cousins?". Of course, he hasn't seen the artwork yet.

FNDP
April 9, 2008 at 8:46 AM
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