Welcome to the World

I'm a new aunt. I'm excited and thrilled, but also a little worried. I'm not what you would call a "baby person." Whenever people/friends have had their little babies, I'm content to admire from afar. It's around 5 when they start talking and reasoning that kids and I connect.

So at first I was feeling like it just wasn't real for me. My sister lives 1500 miles away and I am not exactly going to have day-to-day or even all that regular of contact with my niece. I went ahead and booked a plane trip to go visit. While I love my sister, I was pretty straightforward that this trip was all about me getting to know my new niece.

I don't know what it is about family that just totally sucks you in. Sascha had me hooked in 2 hours. It was the ride home from the airport while I sat in the back seat with her because it was really late and she was tired. She fell asleep as long as I had my arm around her in her car seat. Whenever I moved or pulled my arm away, she'd get upset again, but as long as I had my arm around her, she was ok.


For the rest of the week I'd hold her and feed her and just love her the whole time. Did I mention that my sister and I are not biologically related? Her dad (my step-dad) adopted me when I was 14. We have known each other since I was 5 and I don't really remember us not being sisters, but we have always known that we weren't biologically related. So what is it about family that makes a person want to take responsibility for a new baby?

I am hardly at the point in my life where I want kids. I even held out the great possibility that I might never want kids and that would be really fine with me. I still am not ready to have one for myself, but it's much more of a future thought. For now I'm hooked on Sascha. I want to see her grow and develop, learn new things, buy her gifts, and just watch how she lives her life. I'm not buying her baby clothes or anything (the girl already has a full closet until she's 18 months old!), but I'm already buying her books. Maybe it's because it's really books for my sister-- something to read while she's nursing or just a way to soothe Sascha to sleep. I'm into all the learning toys and growing, developing things too.

We put up a mobile on her crib while I was there. The transformation was unbelievable. Remember, she's only 6 weeks old, but she went from general stares at people and things to watching individual pieces rotating around. So now she seems to be noticing colors and actual objects a lot more. She also wants to be sitting UP in your arms, not laying down all the time, because she's looking at things not just the ceiling.




Basically, she's pretty perfect and precious. And I've never been so thrilled to have a niece that I get to spoil and love.