family reunion

a couple of days ago, I went to visit my cousin. or rather, my cousin's kids (my cousin and his wife were out and left the kids with his visiting mother).

the first thing I notice is that the boy, age 9, is large. way larger than he's meant to be. I guess it's not that surprising, given that his mother has always seemed inexplicably afraid of her children not eating enough. so much so that she never takes a 10-minute car trip without packing them with chips and candy. from the time they were babies, she's insisted they eat adult-sized portions. and it looks like it's finally catching up to the (not so) littler one.

the next thing I see are the green streaks in the 11-year old's hair. when I comment, she tells me how her mother highlighted her hair blue but it faded really quickly and left her with moss-colored strands she's always fidgeting with. she's wearing shorts so short that the pockets are hanging out the bottom, and a rhinestone-studded belly top that she's proud of having picked out herself. she likes to show off, "her style", she says, anachronistically topping it off with a minnie-mouse hair bow perched atop her crown.

the boy has eyelashes so long they look like inkstains around his eyes. I have him close his eyes so I can imagine they were mine. the girl notes the stubbiness of her own lashes, and I tell her I know how she feels. she tells me how her mother makes her put on special eyelash-growth serum every night, and that she hates it. but she wants her eyelashes to grow so that she can have "pretty eyes". it comes out later that her mother is contemplating plastic surgery for her now, so that her features will set "correctly" before she gets too old.

the boy, on the other hand, who is blessed with abnormally good looks, has self-selected himself as an idiot. "I'm stupid", he whines in a baby voice, and tries to burrow up into my side. I suppose this could've been construed as cute when he was half this age, but now at 9, and a good 35 pounds overweight, it's actually very alarming. however, given that the last time I saw him, 7 months ago, he refused to get up off the floor and would only eat from your hand, begging you to "order" him "around like a puppy", I guess this is an improvement.