home again
I'm alive, honest! Time tends to stand still when I'm in Chicago with my family, and once my niece arrived...well, it was pretty much "Computer? What computer?"
Speaking of my niece...
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Two minutes old, and already with the pouty face!
Skyla Rose Nicole arrived on October 7th at 8:04 am and, as Dave Barry puts it, immediately demanded to be put back in. She was 19" long, weighed 7lb 3oz, and is the most amazing little person I have ever seen.
She does this a lot.
Hospitals have gotten really relaxed about who they let in the birthing room. We all stuck around; my sister's husband held one leg, I held the other, and my mom was there for moral support considering that she was the only one of the four of us who had ever actually birthed a baby. I watched Skyla being born, and...well, there are no words for it. My sister was a complete star; if I do half as well when my time comes, I'll be in really damn good shape.
I was gone for two weeks, and all but two nights of it were spent with my sister. I don't think we've ever had that much time together - not in our adult lives, anyway. We've both grown up a lot. There was only one real Drama Llama attack the entire time, and that was the two of us with my mom, not each other. Trust me, that's huge.
Leaving them hurt. A lot. To the point that I'm rethinking this whole "never moving back to Chicago" thing. I say that every time I return from a trip home, but this is a little different. This is the first time I've left two brand new baby godchildren behind. I'm not sure how long I can be OK with that.
In the middle of all this new life, we also got a reminder that my parents will not be here forever. Everything ended up OK, but a shadow on the chest X-ray of a man who's been smoking for 45+ years, combined with some other symptoms, is enough to scare the crap out of you. I forget so often that Dad is 64.
At the same time, it's not so easy to just pick up and move. We both have good jobs, with mine being about as secure as you can get - not something to take for granted these days. We own a house in a craptastic real estate market, which isn't going to get sold anytime soon. And, well, we like it here. It's home.
Meh. Everybody should just move to Georgia. ;-)
Enough of my whining. Instead, here are some more adorable pics:
Yup. Still sleeping.
My gorgeous sister - you'd never guess she had a baby four days ago!
Grandpa's four girls (Mom, me, sis, Skyla)
Speaking of my niece...
>
Two minutes old, and already with the pouty face!
Skyla Rose Nicole arrived on October 7th at 8:04 am and, as Dave Barry puts it, immediately demanded to be put back in. She was 19" long, weighed 7lb 3oz, and is the most amazing little person I have ever seen.
She does this a lot.
Hospitals have gotten really relaxed about who they let in the birthing room. We all stuck around; my sister's husband held one leg, I held the other, and my mom was there for moral support considering that she was the only one of the four of us who had ever actually birthed a baby. I watched Skyla being born, and...well, there are no words for it. My sister was a complete star; if I do half as well when my time comes, I'll be in really damn good shape.
I was gone for two weeks, and all but two nights of it were spent with my sister. I don't think we've ever had that much time together - not in our adult lives, anyway. We've both grown up a lot. There was only one real Drama Llama attack the entire time, and that was the two of us with my mom, not each other. Trust me, that's huge.
Leaving them hurt. A lot. To the point that I'm rethinking this whole "never moving back to Chicago" thing. I say that every time I return from a trip home, but this is a little different. This is the first time I've left two brand new baby godchildren behind. I'm not sure how long I can be OK with that.
In the middle of all this new life, we also got a reminder that my parents will not be here forever. Everything ended up OK, but a shadow on the chest X-ray of a man who's been smoking for 45+ years, combined with some other symptoms, is enough to scare the crap out of you. I forget so often that Dad is 64.
At the same time, it's not so easy to just pick up and move. We both have good jobs, with mine being about as secure as you can get - not something to take for granted these days. We own a house in a craptastic real estate market, which isn't going to get sold anytime soon. And, well, we like it here. It's home.
Meh. Everybody should just move to Georgia. ;-)
Enough of my whining. Instead, here are some more adorable pics:
Yup. Still sleeping.
My gorgeous sister - you'd never guess she had a baby four days ago!
Grandpa's four girls (Mom, me, sis, Skyla)