We Are Family

Birthday season rolls along in our extended R. family. Last weekend, my niece N. celebrated 3 years of fabulousity. I remember 3 years ago I was working at Hayley and Ace's preschool and I was cleaning up my classroom while the children were out at recess. My cell phone rang and I saw it was my sister, my heart started racing because I knew it was close to her due date and I expected to hear that labor was starting or they were on the way to the hospital or some update. Turns out sweet N was already here! I squealed and got some details and the ran down the hallway to share the news with coworkers and sneak into Hayley's classroom to tell her the news. It was about 2 months before Hayley and I made the trip to NC to meet her face to face. She was wearing this cute little green jumper and those socks that look like mary jane shoes when we first got to see her. So tiny and pink and huggable. My sister and brother in law looked a little tired but I don't think they felt the exhaustion, they were high on new parenthood. Hayley held N. for the first time and exclaimed "She's beautiful". Yes, she is.
In just a few short weeks I will become an aunt all over again, to another sweet niece (or so we've been told). Every time I look at the calender I count the weeks till May 4. Every time I talk to Katherine, I picture her on the other line, wonder how big her belly is, wonder what baby items are around her, what she must be feeling, thinking. It is a happy time, definitely, but a little sad because such a big part of me whats to be THERE, not just hearing about it over the phone. But, I'll have to settle for just calling incessently and demanding pictures and updates on a daily basis.

In other, much less exciting news, I introduced the Fantastic Four to Mad Libs yesterday. The ridiculous nature of Mad Libs made Hayley uncomfortable, she was upset when a sentence didn't make sense, even when I explained that that was the point, to be silly. Ace wanted to make every word butt or poop, even when we asked for an adjective or adverb. He now insists that buttly is a word. Julia just offered up suggestions of the few words that she uses often. If we asked for a noun, she would suggest 4. It kept things interesting, that is for sure.

Yesterday was also the first day in a long while that we've been able to go to the neighborhood park. It was still a little chilly but sunny and Julia and Ace had a chance to run around and play with a friend from Ace's school. Between the park, storytime, and the grocery store, we had a busy day yesterday, there was a lot of mud involved and changing clothes and fastening and unfastening seatbelts. When we got home Julia kept telling me "I had fun!" which makes it all worth it.