This weekend we found out who Penelope looks EXACTLY like. She looks like her second cousin, Jaxon Rozema, who was born about 6 weeks before her. We went to Salt Lake City this past weekend for a mini-vacation (more on that later) and met up with my Aunt & Uncle, cousins, and cousin's children.
Jaxon is 3 months old, and seems a lot bigger than Penelope is right now. Penelope and Jaxon have a striking resemblance: Same large blue eyes, roundish head, hair in the back but almost none on top, and super sweet smile. The pictures don't do justice to how much they look alike, but they give you an idea. Jaxon was much more photogenic that night and had lots of big smiles for everyone, while Penelope generally wanted to suck on her Soothie pacifier.
During this visit, there was a short debate about who was a second cousin to who, what a first cousin once removed was, and whether or not John Edwards wife should have known he was on a yacht with 5 bikini clad women. (relatives.....) We will just focus on the first two debates.
So today you get a lesson on kinship terminology.
According to Wikipedia, my first cousins' progeny will only ever be my first cousins. They just become 'removed' each generation. (No, Colleen, you can't just remove the relatives you don't like, even though we may sometimes want to!) So Jaxon is my first cousin, once removed, because he is my mom's-sister's-daughter's-son. But Jaxon is Penelope's second cousin, because there is an extra generation involved - her grandparents. Jaxon is Penelope's Grandma's-sister's-daughter's-son. Yes, there will be a quiz at the end.
Wikipedia also defines the word 'cousin' as two people with common ancestors, so for those of us that don't want to Google a kinship chart every time they want to explain relations, we are safe calling any relative a 'cousin'.
Speaking of relations, I remember a tense car ride a few years back involving my brother and Wayne's brother and sister. Crammed into the Camry we drove during college, my brother Danny mentioned something about being related to Philip, Wayne's brother. At that point, a family - or perhaps a non-family - feud broke out as Philip and his sister Joanna vehemently denighed being related to Danny. After some yelling, tears, and a very loud, "just drop it, right now!", there was silence in that little car, as we all finished the ride staring straight ahead, thighs and shoulders touching.
The helpful Wikipedia kinship chart.
Gracious! That picture of them together could definitely pass them off as twins! I guess cuteness just runs in the fam. :)
ReplyDeletehahaha! Oh I love the reminder of that horrible debate. I suppose neither of us wanted to claim any connection to Danny. Hahah
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