My Cousin Grady, by Wally Ben

I’ve known my cousin Grady since I was born. He was born 5 months before me. He was my mom’s guinea pig, teaching her how to put a diap on a baby—something she never even did before him! Can you believe it? So good thing for him!

When I was born, Grady already knew all about life. He was so big! I thought, I’d like to be that big one day. So I worked very hard at it. And guess what, would you believe I got that big? But by that time, he was already even bigger! So I had to keep on working hard to catch up. I worked and I worked, and I finally am almost getting there.

He likes Justin Bieber, matchbox cars, and racing. I like the Itsy Bitsy Spider, basketballs, and spinning. But even though we like different things, Grady is my best bud.

My mom and dad told me cousins are like automatic lifelong friends. Because no matter what, cousins will always be there for smashing bread at Thanksgiving or for Whitecastle-stuffed turkeys with the Loonies. They will be at the cottage running down sand dunes, at Ben Franklin in Cambridge shooting chipmunks, at Silver Lake with picnics and weenie roasts and walks through the graveyard. They will even be good friends from India or on sailing trips around the globe. You will see them and feel lucky that you share holidays and blood and grandparents and memories for the rest of your life with them.

My mom says I’m lucky to have a cousin my same age. And I’m even luckier because I get two more cousins this year! My Auntie Liz is going to pick hers out from the baby store tomorrow, and Grady’s mom is getting one in June. For some reason babies are on back order, so they take like 9 or 10 months once you buy them. You should see how big my Auntie Liz got from the stress of waiting. I didn’t want to tell her, but she got heavy in the belly just waiting for her order to come in. Seriously, guys. I even checked to see if she was hiding a basketball under there, and no. It was her big old belly.