Babies, babies, everywhere!

I'm an aunt! Emma Elizabeth Costello was born at 9:08 am on Wednesday... 5 lbs 14 oz. My poor sister-in-law (and brother) had a rough week with a few overnight stays in the hospital due to preeclampsia. Fortunately, everyone is doing very well now and we have a beautiful new addition to the family. I've been thinking all summer about how nice it would be to live near family. Now it's killing me that we're so far away. Ian and I are hoping to make it to Missouri for Thanksgiving so we can meet her. I don't know how I'll make it that long! Fortunately, Ian's going to be scheduling a couple interviews in the St. Louis area for October, so there's an outside chance we might be able to get together before Thanksgiving. I hope so! Until then, I've been checking online at least twice a day for updates to their blog or online photo album. (Hint, hint.) :) I'm sure they're probably a little bit busy with other stuff, though... like taking care of their new bundle of joy and all her diapers and feedings and whatnot.

We had some other exciting news this week. One of Ian's "pseudos" (family friends he grew up with that are virtually family - we all have those, right?) and his wife also had a baby girl this week, possibly on the same day that Emma was born, although I haven't confirmed that yet. Silly excited uncle emailed everyone with her weight and length and all that, but not exactly when she was born. Anyway, we're also very excited to welcome Ava MacKenzie Perez!

Fortunately, there's no shortage of babies to continue looking forward to meeting. Ian's brother and his wife are due in just a couple weeks. He or she will be the first grandchild on Ian's side of the family, just like Emma is on mine. It's fun to have both of our families going through these big life events at the same time. After baby Villanueva, one of Ian's best friends from college will be expecting his third child and a friend of mine from grad school will be expecting her first in November, my former boss and friend is expecting a little boy in December and one of Ian's friends from med school is expecting her first child in January. Phew. What's with you people? :) Just kidding. It's fun and exciting for everyone to be moving into the parenthood phase of life. I think we may be past the years of 7+ weddings to attend and we're moving on to welcoming many babies into the world.

All these babies have been making me a little bit nervous. I haven't really been around kids much for a long, long time. I've spent time with my friend Sarah's little girl, but I get to see them much too infrequently. She's really the only one I've seen much. Sometimes it's fun to be around kids, but sometimes I feel like I don't know what to do. Today we stopped by Ian's boss's house to pick up something and spent a little time hanging out with his three girls - 8, 3(?), and 18 months. It was lots of fun! The baby loved me and I, naturally, loved her. (It also doesn't hurt that her middle name is Mae!) She pretended to be shy when I first said hello, but after about 2 minutes, she was running over to me wanting me to pick her up. She continued to try to jump out of my arms, run away, run back to me and jump so I could pick her up again over and over the whole time we were there. She was adorable. At the same time, the 8-year-old was showing me a game online and the 3 year-old gave me her blankie. They were all precious - and a good confidence booster. Kids are fun! I'm good with kids! I was a rock-star babysitter, after all. I was addicted to Baby-sitters Club books and went to a seminar at the community college when I was 10 or so to become a Certified Babysitter. :) So I'm a pro. Sometimes it has felt like life has been very serious since we moved to Charlotte. Ian's working very hard, I'm not working at all. Both have their downsides. The girls' energy and excitement today was infectious. After telling their parents that I'm happy to come watch them any time, we finally left. Now I miss them, too, and I'm ready for more. Bring on the babies!